The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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corresponding forms Prov. lenha/linha (as opposed to lenh/linh), Cat. llenya
(lleny), Sp. leña (leño), Ptg. lenha (lenho), Sard. linna performing both
functions (but cf. linnarbu (m.) ‘poplar’). (LIGNUM has generally developed the
meaning of ‘ship’ as well as ‘wood’.) We also find a widespread opposition of
the same sort between the reflexes of individual FUSTE meaning ‘wood, as a
material’, ‘trunk’, ‘stick’, ‘barrel’ and those of collective *FUSTA meaning
‘timber’ (but also later denoting a kind of ship), whether or not this goes back
to Common Romance times, thus It. fusto (with gender characterization)/frusto
(× FRUSTUM ‘fragment’) and OVen. fusta ‘galley’, ‘prison hulk’, OIt. frusta
‘cudgel’ (now ‘whip’, ‘baguette’), Rh. füst, füsta, OFr. fust (now fût), fuste,
Prov., Cat. fust, fusta, Sp., Ptg. fuste, fusta (also ‘pinnace’); only the FUSTE form
is found in Log. fuste, Camp, fusti, Rum. fuşte (back-formation from the pl.
fuşti). Here the original distinctions of meaning have often become blurred, and
we may have to do with some borrowing by one language from another
(Corominas says OVen. fusta comes from Catalan, and the same may be true of
the French, Provençal, Spanish and Portuguese words when used in the sense of
‘galley’ or ‘pinnace’); however, the distinction between unitary fust(e) and
collective fusta in Old Catalan and Old Spanish, for example, is quite clear, so
that it seems to me that basically there was a native development of both forms
in the areas where both are found.
Finally, the collective plural FRUCTA has everywhere been preserved
either as a plural or as a collective singular, forming a contrast with the reflexes
of FRUCTU, which denote an individual fruit (or, in the plural, figurative ‘fruits’).
Here Rumanian has pl. frupte, which has acquired the meaning of ‘milk
products’ (fruit of milk ? – see Provençal below), while for collective ‘fruit’ or
‘fruits’ it has fructe, plural of the loanword fruct. Italian has the collective pl.
frutta, as opposed to the individual tre frutti; this frut(t)i is also used for frutta
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