rabuscula

Latin

Etymology

Uncertain; apparently a diminutive in -ula from an unclear root. L&S and Gaffiot both propose rāvus (“grey”). If that is the correct etymology, the first vowel would presumably be /ā/, not /ă/. The apparent discrepancy in consonants would be explained by the fact that intervocalic /b/ and /w/ were merging to /β/ around the time that Pliny wrote his Historia naturalis (77 CE- the only work containing an attestation of rabuscula). As for the element *-usca, compare the endings of labrusca, atrusca.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /raˈbus.ku.la/, [räˈbʊs̠kʊɫ̪ä]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /raˈbus.ku.la/, [räˈbuskulä]

Noun

rabuscula f (genitive rabusculae); first declension

a type of vine

Declension

First-declension noun
	singular	plural
nominative	rabuscula	rabusculae
genitive	rabusculae	rabusculārum
dative	rabusculae	rabusculīs
accusative	rabusculam	rabusculās
ablative	rabusculā	rabusculīs
vocative	rabuscula	rabusculae

References

“rabuscula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
rabuscula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.