fraxinus

See also: Fraxinus

Latin

FWOTD – 16 October 2012

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *frāksinos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-inos, adjective of *bʰerHǵós (“birch”). Cognate with, भूर्ज (bhūrjá, “Himalayan birch”) (Betula utilis), English birch, Russian берёза (berjóza).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfraːk.si.nus/, [ˈfräːks̠ɪnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfrak.si.nus/, [ˈfräksinus]

fraxinus (ash tree)

Noun

frāxinus f (genitive frāxinī); second declension

1. an ash tree
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.30:

     montes et valles diligit abies, robur, castaneae, tilia, ilex, cornus. aquosis montibus gaudent acer, fraxinus, sorbus, tilia, cerasus.

     Mountains and valleys are favoured by fir, oak, chestnut, linden, scarlet oak, dogwood. Wet mountains abound in maple, ash, service-tree, linden, [and] cherry.

2. an ashen spear or javelin

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	frāxinus	frāxinī
Genitive	frāxinī	frāxinōrum
Dative	frāxinō	frāxinīs
Accusative	frāxinum	frāxinōs
Ablative	frāxinō	frāxinīs
Vocative	frāxine	frāxinī

Derived terms

• Frāsinus
• frāxineus
• frāxinētum

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: frapsin
  • Romanian: frasin, frapsăn; фрасин (frasin)
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: frassino

    Central dialects: frassu, frasano

  • Neapolitan: frasso, frassono
  • Sicilian: fràscinu, fràssinu
    • → Maltese: fraxxnu
• North Italian:
  • Friulian: frassin
  • Ladin: frasen
  • Ligurian: frasciu
  • Piedmontese: frasu, fraisu
  • Romansch: fraissen, fraischen, fressen
  • Venetian: fràsene, fràsino
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: freixe
  • Franco-Provençal: frâno, frîno, freno
  • Occitan: fraisse
  • Old French: fraisne, fresne, frasne, freine; fraigne
    • Angevin: frêne, fragne
    • Bourguignon: fraigne, fragne
    • Lorrain: frâne
    • Middle French: fresne
      • French: frêne
    • Norman: frêne, frêine
    • Walloon: frinne
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: fraxino, fraxen, freixen

    Ribagorçan: freixe

  • Old Leonese: [Term?]
    • Asturian: freisnu
    • Extremaduran: fresnu
      • →? Fala: fresnu
    • Leonese: freisnu
    • Mirandese: frezno
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: freixo, freyxo
    • Galician: freixo
    • Portuguese: freixo
  • Old Spanish: fresno, freisno, frexno, frexeno
    • Spanish: fresno (see there for further descendants)
• Insular Romance:
  • Old Corsican: *frassu
    • Corsican: frassu
  • Sardinian: frassu
• Ancient borrowings:
  • → Albanian: frashër
• Learned borrowings:
  • →? Greek: φράξος (fráxos)
  • → Interlingua: fraxino

Adjective

frāxinus (feminine frāxina, neuter frāxinum); first/second-declension adjective

1. of ash wood; ashen
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.677–678:

     […] certe si fraxinus esset, fulva colore foret […]

     surely if it were of ash, it would have a yellow color

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	frāxinus	frāxina	frāxinum		frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxina
Genitive	frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxinī		frāxinōrum	frāxinārum	frāxinōrum
Dative	frāxinō		frāxinō		frāxinīs
Accusative	frāxinum	frāxinam	frāxinum		frāxinōs	frāxinās	frāxina
Ablative	frāxinō	frāxinā	frāxinō		frāxinīs
Vocative	frāxine	frāxina	frāxinum		frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxina

References

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 588: “il frassino” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fraxĭnus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 3: D–F, page 771

Further reading

• “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fraxinus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “fraxinus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly