LOGOI

The corpus record — Latin

lignum

lignum

wood

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

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 98 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. lignum — de Vaan

lignum 'wood' [n. ο] (P1.+) Derivatives: ligneus 'wooden' (PL+), ligneolus 'id.' (Lucil.+), lignan 'to collect firewood' (P1.+). Pit. *legno~. PIE-*leg (h W. limbus If derived from */eg- 'to collect', lignum must originally have indicated 'wood collected for firemaking', from the root *feg- 'to collect'. The full grade might have been adopted from the present. The phonetic change of *-egn- [βηή\ > -ign- is regular. … — [de Vaan, s.v. lignum, p. 354]

2. lignum — Lewis & Short

lignum, i, n.prob. root leg-, v. 2. lĕgo; that which is gathered, i. e. for firewood,

I wood (firewood. opp. to materia, timber for building, Dig. 32, 1, 55).
I Lit. (class. only in plur.): ligna neque fumosa erunt et ardebunt bene, Cato, R. R. 130: ligna et sarmenta circumdare, ignem subicere, Cic. Verr. 2, 1, 27, § 69: ignem ex lignis viridibus atque umidis fieri jussit, id. ib. 2, 1, 17, § 45: ligna super foco Large reponens, Hor. C. 1, 9, 5: ligna et virgas et carbones quibusdam videri esse in penu, Mas. Sab. ap. Gell. 4, 1, 22.—Prov.: in silvam ligna ferre, i. e. to perform useless labor, or, as we say in English, to carry coals to Newcastle, Hor. S. 1, 10, 34: lignorum aliquid posce, Juv. 7, 24.—
B In gen., timber, wood: hos lignum stabat in usus, Annosam si forte nucem dejecerat Eurus, i. e. for making tables, Juv. 11, 118.—
II Transf.
A That which is made of wood, a writing-tablet: vana supervacui dicunt chirographa ligni, Juv. 13, 137; 16, 41; a plank: ventis animam committe, dolato confisus ligno, id. 12, 58.—
B The hard part of fruit, the shell (of a nut), or the stone or kernel (of cherries, plums, etc.): bacarum intus lignum, Plin. 15, 28, 34, § 111; 15, 3, 3, § 10: lignum in pomo, id. 13, 4, 9, § 40; of grape-stones, id. 17, 21, 35, § 162.—
C A fault in table-tops, where the grain of the wood is not curly, but straight, Plin. 13, 15, 30, § 98.—
D (Poet. and late Lat.) A tree, Verg. A. 12, 767; Hor. S. 1, 8, 1; id. C. 2, 13, 11: lignum pomiferum, Vulg. Gen. 1, 11: lignum scientiae boni et mali, id. ib. 2, 9: lignum vitae, id. Apoc. 2, 9.—
E A staff, club (eccl. Lat.): cum gladiis et lignis, Vulg. Marc. 14, 43 and 48.

3. lignum — Walde–Hofmann

lignum (-i-?), -; n. (-us m. Itala, -a f. Iordan.) „Holz“, bes. „Brennholz* (opp. mäteria, z. B. Ulp. dig. 7, 1, 12 pr.); met. (dicht.) „Gegenstände aus Holz“ (seit Plaut., rom. [-£-], ebenso lignor, -dtus sum, -ärt „hole Holz“ seit Plt. (-atio, -ätor seit Caes.], lignárius m. „Holzarbeiter, -hándler" seit Liv., ligneus „hölzern“ seit Plt., Zignösus ds. seit Plin., Hignámen „Holzwerk“ Cl.; vgl. noch ligneolus „fein … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. lignum, p. 831]

In the wild

6 of 500 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. lignum (scan pp. 354-355; entry #913). Root candidates: *feg-, *legh-, *leg-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. lignum (scan p. 382; entry #6029).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. lignum (scan pp. 831-832; entry #1543). Root candidates: *eij-, *leig-, *sleig-.

Downloads

Word record (JSON)·Concordance (CSV)·Frequencies (CSV)·Cite (BibTeX)

CC BY 4.0 with receipt attribution — every file carries its license line. What is exportable

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.