frutex

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin frutex.

Noun

frutex (plural frutexes or frutices)

1. (botany) A plant with a woody, durable stem, but less than a tree; a shrub.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for frutex in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Translations

a shrub

• Bulgarian: храст (bg) m (hrast)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 灌木 (zh) (guànmù)

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Latin

Etymology

Uncertain; proposed derivations include:

• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil, brew, sprout?”), via shortening of *frūto-, and then connected to Old English brēowan (“to brew”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰruto- or *bʰrutós and then connected to Old High German brōz (“bud, scion, offshoot”), Middle High German briezen (“to bud, swell”) and Old Irish broth (“awn, hair”). Compare English breast, Proto-Celtic *brusū (“belly, abdomen, breast”) and Proto-Slavic *břȗxo (“belly”), all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to swell”).
• From a root common to Ancient Greek βρύω (brúō, “to swell”) and (perhaps) Proto-West Germanic *krūd (“plant, herb”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd-. Cognates include Old English brēotan (“to break”), Old Irish broth (“awn”) and maybe Lithuanian brùzgas (“bush, shrub”).

Compare Latin fruticare (“to sprout”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfru.teks/, [ˈfrʊt̪ɛks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfru.teks/, [ˈfruːt̪eks]

Noun

frutex m (genitive fruticis); third declension

1. shrub, bush
2. trunk (of a tree)
3. (informal) blockhead

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	frutex	fruticēs
Genitive	fruticis	fruticum
Dative	fruticī	fruticibus
Accusative	fruticem	fruticēs
Ablative	frutice	fruticibus
Vocative	frutex	fruticēs

Derived terms

• fruticētum
• fruticō
• fruticōsus
• suffrutex

Descendants

• Portuguese: frútice

References

• “frutex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “frutex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• frutex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette