aesculus

See also: Aesculus

Latin

Aesculus fere mille annorum in Bulgaria (Thracia)

Etymology

Etymology unclear. By surface analysis, seemingly a diminutive form ending in -ulus (diminutive suffix).

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”), or from a Mediterranean substrate, though the presence of a Germanic cognate is surprising. Compare English oak, Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”), Albanian enjë (“juniper, yew”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈae̯s.ku.lus/, [ˈäe̯s̠kʊɫ̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈes.ku.lus/, [ˈɛskulus]

Noun

aesculus f (genitive aesculī); second declension

1. the tallest species of oak, the winter oak or Italian oak (with edible acorns), sacred to Jupiter

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	aesculus	aesculī
genitive	aesculī	aesculōrum
dative	aesculō	aesculīs
accusative	aesculum	aesculōs
ablative	aesculō	aesculīs
vocative	aescule	aesculī

Derived terms

• aesculeus

Descendants

• Italian: eschio
• Portuguese: ésculo

References

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “aesculus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 28
• “aesculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “aesculus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• aesculus 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)
• aesculus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “aesculus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers