fraxinus

See also: Fraxinus

Latin edit

FWOTD – 16 October 2012

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

fraxinus (ash tree)

frāxinus f (genitive frāxinī); second declension

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.
an ashen spear or javelin

Balkan Romance:
- Aromanian: frapsin
- Romanian: frasin, frapsăn; фрасин (frasin)
Italo-Romance:
- Italian: frassino
  Central dialects: frassu, frasano
- Neapolitan: frasso, frassono
- Sicilian: fràscinu, fràssinu
  - → Maltese: fraxxnu
North Italian:
- Friulian: frassin
- Ladin: frasen
- Ligurian: frasciu
- Piedmontese: frasu, fraisu
- Romansch: fraissen, fraischen, fressen
- Venetian: fràsene, fràsino
Gallo-Romance:
- Catalan: freixe
- Franco-Provençal: frâno, frîno, freno
- Occitan: fraisse
- Old French: fraisne, fresne, frasne, freine; fraigne
  - Angevin: frêne, fragne
  - Bourguignon: fraigne, fragne
  - Lorrain: frâne
  - Middle French: fresne
    - French: frêne
  - Norman: frêne, frêine
  - Walloon: frinne
Ibero-Romance:
- Aragonese: fraxino, fraxen, freixen
  Ribagorçan: freixe
- Old Leonese: [Term?]
  - Asturian: freisnu
  - Extremaduran: fresnu
    - →? Fala: fresnu
  - Leonese: freisnu
  - Mirandese: frezno
- Old Galician-Portuguese: freixo, freyxo
  - Galician: freixo
  - Portuguese: freixo
- Old Spanish: fresno, freisno, frexno, frexeno
  - Spanish: fresno (see there for further descendants)
Insular Romance:
- Old Corsican: *frassu
  - Corsican: frassu
- Sardinian: frassu
Ancient borrowings:
- → Albanian: frashër
Learned borrowings:
- →? Greek: φράξος (fráxos)
- → Interlingua: fraxino

frāxinus (feminine frāxina, neuter frāxinum); first/second-declension adjective

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

Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Number	Singular			Plural
Nominative	frāxinus	frāxina	frāxinum	frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxina
Genitive	frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxinī	frāxinōrum	frāxinārum	frāxinōrum
Dative	frāxinō	frāxinae	frāxinō	frāxinīs
Accusative	frāxinum	frāxinam	frāxinum	frāxinōs	frāxinās	frāxina
Ablative	frāxinō	frāxinā	frāxinō	frāxinīs
Vocative	frāxine	frāxina	frāxinum	frāxinī	frāxinae	frāxina

AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 588: “il frassino” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fraxĭnus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 3: D–F, page 771