The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

from Syria or because itisblack.29.Moreoverthere are
many species of vines that, with a change of locality, lose
both their character and their name.
30.Among others, these activities are most appropriate
for vines: loosening the soil, pruning, propagation,
and digging. 31.To‘loosen the soil’ (oblaqueare)istolay
open the soil around the stock and to form hollows to
hold water; some call this ‘clearing the root’ (excodicare).
32.Toprune(putare)istocut back superfluous branches
from the vine where the top growth is luxuriant, for to
prune is to cleanse, that is to cut off (amputare). 33. To
train (traducere) avineis to ‘lead it across’ (transducere).
To propagate (propaginare) istostretchashootof
the vine to beburiedinthesoil,andthenasitwere
to ‘fasten it at a distance’ (porro pangere). Hence the
term ‘progeny’ (propago), so called from propagate and
‘stretch out’ (protendere). To dig (fodere)istomakeapit
(fovea), as if the term were fovere.
vi. Trees (De arboribus) 1. Theterm‘tree’ (arbor), as
well as ‘small plant’ (herba), is thought to be modified
from the word ‘field’ (arvum), because they cling to the
earth with fixed roots. The terms resemble one another
because the one grows from the other. When you have
cast the seeds on the ground first the small plant springs
up, and when it is tended it grows into a tree, and within
a short time what you had seen as a small plant you gaze
up to as a sapling. 2. Asapling (arbustum) isanewand
pliant tree, in which a graft can be made, and it is called
arbustum as if it were ‘the spear of a tree’ (arboris hasta).
Others would take arbustum as the place where trees
grow, like the term for ‘willow thicket’ (salictum); and
likewise (i.e. with a similar derivational ending) virectum
(“greensward”), where there are new and green (virere)
bushes.
3.Thewordarbor for ‘tree’ refers to both fruit-bearing
and sterile trees, but arbos only to fruit-bearing. We
decline words for trees in the feminine gender, but words
for their fruits in the neuter. 4.Ashrub (frutex)isashort
growth, so called because by its foliage it covers (fronde
tegit) the ground; the plural of this word is ‘shrubbery’
(frutectum). But atree(arbor) istall. 5. Athicket(silva)
is a dense and small grove. Silva is so called as if the
word were xylva, because there wood is felled, for the
Greeks call wood –formany Latin terms commonly
have a Greek etymology. 6. Agrove(nemus) is
named for divinity (numen), because pagans set up their
The Etymologies XVII.v.29–vi.18 341
idols there, for groves are sites with larger trees, shady
with foliage. 7.A‘sacredgrove’(lucus)isadense thicket
of trees that lets no light come to the ground, named by
way of antiphrasis because it ‘sheds no light’ (non lucere).
Or it is named from ‘light’ (lux, gen.lucis) becausein
it torches or candles used to give off light against the
darkness of the grove.
8. Aglade(saltus) isahighthicketoftrees,called
by this name because it ‘springs up’ (exsilire) onhigh
and rises aloft. 9. Anaviaria is a hidden grove so called
because it is the haunt of birds (avis). 10.‘Secondgrowth’
(recidivum)with regard to trees consists of what sprouts
again after other parts have been cut. Some say that
recidivum is from ‘falling’ (cadere), because they make
new growth after being felled. Others have said that it
is from ‘cutting back’ (recidere) and sprouting again.
Therefore something may be recidivus (i.e. “restored”)
where there has been death or falling.
11.Wespeak of grafting (insitio)when, after the stem
is split, a scion from a fertile tree is grafted (inserere,ppl.
insitus)onto a sterile tree; or, it is the implanting of buds
when, after the bark is sliced open, the bud of a foreign
tree is set into theinner bark. 12. Cuttings(planta) are
from trees, but seedlings (plantaria)aregrownfromseed
and are transplanted with their roots from their original
soil. 13. Turf(caespes) isalowgrowth, as if the term
were ‘spears’ (cuspis) or‘around the feet’ (circa pedes).
Branches (frons) are so called because they ‘produce’
(ferre) shoots or shade, for they are the cause of shade.
Eyes (oculus) arethenodes from which branches grow.
14. Theroot (radix) issocalled because fixed in the
ground in the manner of ‘radiating spokes’ (radius), as
it were, it goes down deep, for natural philosophers say
that the depth of the roots is equal to the height of the
trees. Others say roots are named for their similarity to
rays (radius), or because, if they are cut away (eradere),
they do not grow back.
15. Thetrunk (truncus) isthestandingpartofatree,
and it rests on the root. The ancients called bark (cortex)
the corux; itisnamedcortex because it covers the wood
withaskin(corium). 16. Liber is the inner part of the bark,
so called from the bark’s being ‘released’ (liberare), that
is, set apart, for it is a kind of medium between bark and
wood. 17. Branches (ramus) arewhat extend from the
trunk, just as from little branches (ramusculus)yetothers
grow. Shoots (serculus)are so named because they are
cut with asaw(serra). 18. Asucker (virgultum) iswhat