gorosti

Basque

Alternative forms

khorostü, koosti (Souletin)
korosti, gorozti, kostei

Etymology

Possibly from Proto-Basque *golosti, but the ultimate origin is unknown. Perhaps a Mediterranean Wanderwort also found in Sardinian golosti, colostri (“holly”) and Ancient Greek κήλαστρος (kḗlastros, “holly”).

Beyond Sardinian and Greek, which clearly bear some resemblance to Basque, other putative cognates have been proposed. Some authors also cite Ticinese ğüštrún, šištrún (“whortleberry, Vaccinium myrtillus”), apparently from Proto-Celtic *glastos (“green”), via Gallo-Italic *wolostrone,^[1] but the semantics is quite doubtful. Agud and Tovar (1994) note that Old English gorst, English gorse (“furze, bramble”) and German Gerste (“barley”) are similar in shape to this word,^[2] however, as the Celtic term, they have a well-established Indo-European etymology.

Derivations that try to explain this word as a Basque compound, such as gora (“up, above”) +‎ osto (“leaf”), or that link it to garratz (“sour”) are to be considered folk etymologies.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɡoɾos̺ti/ [ɡo.ɾos̺.t̪i]
Rhymes: -os̺ti, -i
Hyphenation: go‧ros‧ti

Noun

gorosti inan

(botany) holly (Ilex aquifolium)

Declension

Declension of *gorosti* (inanimate, ending in vowel)
	indefinite	singular	plural
absolutive	gorosti	gorostia	gorostiak
ergative	gorostik	gorostiak	gorostiek
dative	gorostiri	gorostiari	gorostiei
genitive	gorostiren	gorostiaren	gorostien
comitative	gorostirekin	gorostiarekin	gorostiekin
causative	gorostirengatik	gorostiarengatik	gorostiengatik
benefactive	gorostirentzat	gorostiarentzat	gorostientzat
instrumental	gorostiz	gorostiaz	gorostiez
inessive	gorostitan	gorostian	gorostietan
locative	gorostitako	gorostiko	gorostietako
allative	gorostitara	gorostira	gorostietara
terminative	gorostitaraino	gorostiraino	gorostietaraino
directive	gorostitarantz	gorostirantz	gorostietarantz
destinative	gorostitarako	gorostirako	gorostietarako
ablative	gorostitatik	gorostitik	gorostietatik
partitive	gorostirik	—	—
prolative	gorostitzat	—	—

Derived terms

gorostiki (“holly wood”)

References

^ Grzega, Joachim (2001) Romania Gallica Cisalpina: Etymologisch-geolinguistische Studien zu den oberitalienisch-rätoromanischen Keltizismen (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie; 311), De Gruyter, pages 181-182
^ Agud, Manuel, Tovar, Antonio (1992) “Materiales para un diccionario etimológico de la lengua vasca (XV)”, in Anuario Del Seminario De Filología Vasca «Julio De Urquijo» (in Spanish), volume 26, number 3, Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 825–826