iuniperus

Latin

Alternative forms

  • iūnipirus
  • ziniperus (late, proscribed)
  • giniperus, geniperus (9th century)

Etymology

Often connected to iūncus (reed).[1] According to Brüch, after the form combrētum, the Latin expected form would be *iūniber, *iūnibrī. The form iūniperus, following him, is a pseudo-Latinism by Sabine speakers, who, themselves in the land of junipers as ancient relations and the terms for particular species catanum and herba Sabīna witness, have borrowed the original form from Umbrian, and knowing the Umbrian correspondence of br to pr and elision of vowels loaned the plant name in the shape iūniperus, iūniperī, in spite of the language of the Latium regularly exposing the nominative singular ending -erus only from old -esos while -er for old -ros.[2] Often connected to Old Norse einir (juniper), supposedly from a Proto-Germanic *(j)ainijaz of the same meaning, through a common Indo-European origin or wanderwort.

Per Trubachyov, also related to iūnīx, typologically the same as *jalovьcь (whence Czech jalovec, Russian я́ловец (jálovec)) related to *jalovica (whence Czech jalovice, Russian я́ловица (jálovica)) (both from Proto-Slavic *jalovъ (whence Czech jalový, Russian я́ловый (jálovyj))).[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

iūniperus f (genitive iūniperī); second declension

  1. juniper-tree

Declension

Second-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative iūniperus iūniperī
genitive iūniperī iūniperōrum
dative iūniperō iūniperīs
accusative iūniperum iūniperōs
ablative iūniperō iūniperīs
vocative iūnipere iūniperī

Synonyms

Derived terms

  • iūnipereus

Descendants

  • Inherited:
    • Balkano-Romance:
      • Aromanian: giuneapini, giuneapine
      • Romanian: jneapăn, jnepen, jneapăr
  • Borrowed:

Reflexes of the late variant ziniperus:

  • Insular Romance:
    • Old Sardinian:
      • Gallurese: niparu
      • Logudorese: nibaru
      • Sassarese: zinibbari
  • Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Rhaeto-Romance:
    • Friulian: zenevre
    • Ladin: jeneivar
    • Romansch: ganaivar, jünaivar, geneivar
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: zenvar, znever
    • Ligurian: zeneivro (medieval), zenêvu
    • Lombard: zenivru, zanibru, zenever
    • Piedmontese: zenèiver, geneiver, znèivr, znèj, genéj, znavr, zneivar
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • Catalan: ginebre
    • Occitan: genibre, genèbre, genebre
      Gascon: genèbre, ginèbre
    • Old Franco-Provençal: genevro
    • Old French: genevre (see there for further descendants)
    • Middle Breton: genevreg
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Aragonese: chinepro, chinipro, chinebro, chinabro, chinarro
    • Old Galician-Portuguese: *jĩebro, *jĩbro
    • Spanish: enebro
  • Borrowings:
    • Basque: ipuru
    • ? Old Norse: einir (see there for further descendants)

References

  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “iuncus (> Derivatives > iūnipe/irus)”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 313
  2. ^ Brüch, Josef (1922) “Lateinische Etymologien”, in Indogermanische Forschungen. Zeitschrift für Indogermanistik und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft[1] (in German), volume 40, Berlin und Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter & Co., pages 224–232
  3. ^ Trubachyov, Oleg, editor (1974), “*alovьcь/*jalovьcь”, in Этимологический словарь славянских языков [Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages] (in Russian), numbers 1 (*a – *besědьlivъ), Moscow: Nauka, page 69

Further reading