fraxinus

From Proto-Italic *fraksinos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-inos, adjective of *bʰerHǵós (“birch”). Cognate with, भूर्ज (bhūrjá, “Himalayan birch”) (Betula utilis), English birch, Russian берёза (berjóza).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfrak.si.nus/, [ˈfrak.sɪ.nʊs]

• Audio (Classical)

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fraxinus (ash tree)

fraxinus f (genitive fraxinī); second declension

1. an ash tree
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.30:

     montes et valles diligit abies, robur, castaneae, tilia, ilex, cornus. aquosis montibus gaudent acer, fraxinus, sorbus, tilia, cerasus.

     Mountains and valleys are favoured by fir, oak, chestnut, linden, scarlet oak, dogwood. Wet mountains abound in maple, ash, service-tree, linden, [and] cherry.

2. an ashen spear or javelin

Second declension.

• fraxineus
• fraxinētum

• Corsican: frassu
• Eastern Romance:
  • Aromanian: frapsin
  • Romanian: frasin, frapsăn
• Extremaduran: fresnu
• Italian: frassino
• Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: fraxino, fraxno
• Old French: fresne, fraisne
  • Middle French: fresne
    • French: frêne
  • Norman: frêne
  • Walloon: frinne
• Old Leonese:
  • Asturian: freisnu
  • Leonese: freisnu
• Old Occitan:
  • Catalan: freixe
  • Occitan: fraisse
• Old Portuguese: freixo, freyxo
  • Fala: fresnu
  • Galician: freixo
  • Portuguese: freixo
• Old Spanish: fresno, freisno, frexno, frexeno
  • Spanish: fresno
    • → Tagalog: presno
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: frassin
  • Romansch: fraissen, fraischen, fressen
• Sardinian: frassu
• Sicilian: fràscinu, fràssinu
• Venetian: fràsene, fràsino
• → Albanian: frashër
• → Greek: φράξος (fráxos)

fraxinus (feminine fraxina, neuter fraxinum); first/second declension

1. of ash wood; ashen
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.677–678:

     […] certe si fraxinus esset, fulva colore foret […]

     surely if it were of ash, it would have a yellow color

First/second declension.

• fraxinus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• fraxinus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fraxinus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• fraxinus in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly