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The corpus record — Latin

quercus

quercus

oak-tree

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 57 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. quercus — de Vaan

quercus 'oak-tree' [f. u] (Enn.+) Derivatives: querneus Of oak' (Cato+), querquetum 'a wood of oaks' (Varro+). Pit. *kwerl?u/o-. PIE *pericw-o/u- c(kind of) oak\ IE cognates: OHG fereheih, Langob. fereho 'kind of oak', OIc. jfarr [m.] 'tree, man' < PGm. *ferxu-; OHG forha, MHG vorhe, OE jurh, OIc. fura [f.] 'fir-tree' < */κ/χο-; OIc. jyri [n.] 'fir forest', NHG Fohre, MoDu, vuur-hout < *βνχ-ΐη-. The word for … — [de Vaan, s.v. quercus, p. 520]

2. quercus — Lewis & Short

quercus, ūs (

I gen. querci, Pall. 4, 7, 8; gen. plur. quercorum, Cic. Fragm. ap. Prisc. p. 717 P.; dat. and abl. plur. do not occur), f. perh. from root kar (kal-k), to be hard; cf.: cornu calx, calculus.
I An oak, oaktree, esp. the Italian or esculent oak, sacred to Jupiter (cf. robur): quercus dicitur, quod id genus arboris grave sit ac durum, tum etiam in ingentem evadat amplitudinem: querqueram enim gravem et magnam putant dici, Paul. ex Fest. p. 259 Müll.: percellunt magnas quercus, Enn. ap. Macr. S. 6, 2 (Ann. v. 194 Vahl.): magna Jovis quercus, Verg. G. 3, 332: glandiferae, Lucr. 5, 939; Cic. Leg. 1, 1, 2: aëriae, Verg. A. 3, 680: quercus et ilex Multā fruge pecus juvat, Hor. Ep. 1, 16, 9: auritae, id. C. 1, 12, 12: aridae, id. ib. 4, 13, 10: durior annosā quercu, Ov. M. 13, 799: quercorum rami, Cic. Fragm. ap. Prisc. p. 717 P.—
II Poet., transf.
A ?*!f things made of oak-wood. Of a ship, of the ship Argo, Val. Fl. 5, 65.— Of a javelin, Val. Fl. 6, 243.— Of a drinkingvessel, Sil. 7, 190.— Capitolina, a garland of oak-leaves, Juv. 6, 386; usually bestowed upon one who had saved the life of a citizen in battle, Ov. F. 4, 953; id. M. 1, 563; Luc. 1, 357: civilis, Verg. A. 6, 772. —
B For acorns (very rare): veteris fastidia quercūs, Juv. 14, 184.

3. quercus — Walde–Hofmann

quercus, -üs f. „Eiche; das aus Eichenholz Gefertigte; Eichel* (seit Enn. rom. [neben *ceerqua) ebenso *quercea, *cercea „Eiche* [vgl. querceus „von Eicheln* seit Colum.] und quercinus „eichen* seit Tert.; vgl. querceus „eichen* seit Cato [guernus de. seit Verg. aus *guerc-nos, Ciardi-Dupré BB. 16, 204. gegen Stokes BB. 11, 71, MeyerLübke KZ, 28, 171), quercula „kleine Eiche“ Ps. Diosc. Vind., querquétum n. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. quercus, p. 1308]

In the wild

6 of 203 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. quercus (scan pp. 520-521; entry #1446). Root candidates: *ferxu-, *perk-, *kues-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. quercus (scan p. 37; entry #245).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. quercus (scan pp. 1308-1309; entry #2209).

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.