The corpus record — Latin

herba

small plant, weed

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Moretum, Appendix Vergiliana 3 · 38.76/10k
Lydia, Appendix Vergiliana 2 · 37.52/10k
Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 36.9/10k
Eclogues 13 · 28.65/10k
Georgicon 33 · 23.32/10k
Culex, Appendix Vergiliana 5 · 19.14/10k
Medicamina faciei femineae 1 · 16.31/10k
Epodon 4 · 13.31/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 2 · 11.75/10k
De agri cultura 18 · 11.51/10k
Remedia Amoris 6 · 11.44/10k
Elegiae 14 · 11.33/10k

Densest 12 of 116 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. herba — de Vaan

herba 'small plant, weed' [L a\ (PL+) Derivatives: herbeus 'grass-green' (PI.), herbidus 'grassy' (Varro+), herbilis 'that is fed on grass' (Lucil,+), herbosus 'grassy' (Cato+). The reconstruction *gher-dh- posited by WH and IEW is impossible if the root of gramen is *g h rh r . No viable alternative is available. Bibl.: WH I: 639L, EM 291f, IEW 454. heres, -edis 'heir' [m. d] (Lex XII+; Naev. acc.sg. herem) … — [de Vaan, s.v. herba, p. 296]

2. herba — Lewis & Short

herba, ae, f.old Lat. forb-ea; Gr. forbh/; Sanscr. root bhar-, to nourish,

I springing vegetation, grass, green stalks or blades, green crops, herbage, an herb (cf.: gramen, faenum, caespes, glaeba): herba cubile Praebebat, multa et molli lanugine abundans, Lucr. 5, 816: in molli consedimus herba, Verg. E. 3, 55: cum ceteris in campo exercentibus in herba ipse recubuisset, Cic. de Or. 2, 71, 287: abicere se in herba, id. ib. 1, 7, 28: fusus per herbam (agricola), Verg. G. 2, 527 al.: invitant (Pecudes) herbae gemmantes rore recenti, Lucr. 2, 319; so, gemmantes rore, id. 5, 461: herbae rore vigentes, id. 2, 361: teneras per herbas Ludere, id. 1, 260: nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum Sustulit, id. 5, 790: ex quibusdam stirpibus et herbis, Cic. N. D. 2, 64, 161: corona ex asperis herbis et agrestibus, id. Div. 1, 34, 75; cf. ib. 2, 32, 68: quas herbas pecudes non edunt, homines edunt, Plaut. Ps. 3, 2, 23 sq.; cf.: fungos, helvellas, herbas omnes ita condiunt, ut nihil possit esse suavius, Cic. Fam. 7, 26, 2: herbis vivis et urticā, Hor. Ep. 1, 12, 7: solstitialis herba, Plaut. Ps. 1, 1, 36: interim mores mali Quasi herba irrigua succreverunt uberrume, id. Trin. 1, 1, 9: fallax veneni, a poisonous plant, Verg. E. 4, 24: nulla neque amnem Libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attigit herbam, a blade, id. ib. 5, 26; cf. Ov. M. 10, 87: et sulcis frumenti quaereret herbam, young crop, Verg. G. 1, 134: novitates si spem afferunt, ut tamquam in herbis non fallacibus fructus appareat, etc., Cic. Lael. 19, 68; cf.: primis segetes moriuntur in herbis, Ov. M. 5, 4: Ceres dominum primis fallebat in herbis, id. F. 4, 645.—So prov.: saepe audivi, inter os atque offam multa intervenire posse; verum vero inter offam atque herbam, ibi vero longum intervallum est, Cato ap. Gell. 13, 17, 1; cf.: sed nimium properas et adhuc tua messis in herba est, Ov. H. 17, 263; and: egone, qui indolem ingenii tui in germine etiam tum et in herba et in flore dilexerim, nunc frugem ipsam maturae virtutis nonne multo multoque amplius diligam? Front. Ep. ad Anton. 1, 5 Mai.: omnis illa laus ... velut in herba vel flore praecerpta ad nullam certam et solidam pervenit frugem, Tac. Dial. 9, 5.—Prov.: herbam dare, to own one's self beaten: herbam do cum ait Plautus, significat: victum me fateor; quod est antiquae et pastoralis vitae indicium. Nam qui in prato cursu aut viribus contendebant, cum superati erant, ex eo solo, in quo certamen erat, decerptam herbam adversario tradebant, Paul. ex Fest. p. 99 Müll.; cf. Serv. Verg. A. 8, 128; Varr. ib.; Plin. 22, 4, 4, § 8; Att. and Afran. ap. Non. 317, 18 and 20.—

II Transf., weeds, useless plants: officiant laetis ne frugibus herbae, Verg. G. 1, 69; 2, 251; cf. id. ib. 2, 411; Plin. 18, 30, 72, § 300.

3. herba — Walde–Hofmann

herba, -ae f. „der grüne Halm, Pflanze; Kraut; Gras“ (seit Plaut., rom., ebenso herbösus seit Cato und *herbulatus; vgl. Demin. herbula ,Pflünzchen seit Cic. und -usewla Mart. Cap. [nach arbuscula, IF. 38, 177'], herbeus ,grasfarbig^ Plt, herbidus „grasreich, grasgrün* seit Varro u. Ov. [nach floridus, Leumann -/is 68; davon herbido, -äre Mart. Cap.], herbzscó, -ere „Halme treiben“ seit Cic, [vgl. ei640 hercle — … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. herba, p. 671]

In the wild

herbarum Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.14
herba Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 22.25.p22
herbae Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 7.363
herbam Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 8.50
herbae Ausonius, Mosella pr.65
herba Vitruvius, De Architectura 7.14.2

6 of 1,087 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. herba (scan pp. 296-297; entry #754). Root candidates: *ghehiro-, *ghed-, *hjed-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. herba (scan p. 315; entry #4965).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. herba (scan pp. 671-674; entry #1308). Root candidates: *ghrad-, *jhers-, *höro-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.