taxus

From Latin taxus.

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taxus m (plural taxussen, diminutive taxusje n)

1. (loosely) any plant of genus Taxus
2. (in particular) yew (Taxus baccata)

   Synonyms: venijnboom, (dialectal) ijf

• taxus on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtak.sʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt̪ak.sus]

A loanword of Scythian origin, from Proto-Iranian *taxša, from Proto-Indo-European *tekʷ- (“to flee, run”), as the fruit was considered poisonous. Also compare modern Persian تخش (taxš, “crossbow”).^[1]

taxus f (genitive taxī); second declension

1. A yew (tree).
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 6.31:

     Catuvolcus, rex dimidiae partis Eburonum, qui una cum Ambiorige consilium inierat, aetate iam confectus, cum laborem aut belli aut fugae ferre non posset, omnibus precibus detestatus Ambiorigem, qui eius consilii auctor fuisset, taxo, cuius magna in Gallia Germaniaque copia est, se exanimavit.

     Cativolcus, king of one half of the Eburones, who had entered into the design together with Ambiorix, since, being now worn out by age, he was unable to endure the fatigue either of war or flight, having cursed Ambiorix with every imprecation, as the person who had been the contriver of that measure, destroyed himself with the juice of the yew-tree, of which there is a great abundance in Gaul and Germany.

2. (poetic) A javelin made of the wood of the yew tree.

Second-declension noun.

• taxeus
• taxicus

From Frankish *þahs, from Proto-Germanic *þahsuz (“badger”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *teḱ- (“construct”) after the badger's construction of its setts. However see also Gaulish taksos (Delamarre, 2003).

• taxō

taxus m (genitive taxī); second declension

1. (Late Latin) badger

Second-declension noun.

See also descendants at taxō.

• Galician: teixo
• Gascon: taish
• Italian: tasso
• Occitan: tais

• “taxus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “taxus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "taxus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• taxus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “taxus”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.