arbutus

See also: Arbutus

English

fruit of the strawberry tree (Arbutus)

trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens)

Etymology

From translingual Arbutus, from Latin arbutus.

Noun

arbutus (plural arbutuses or arbuti)

1. Any flowering plant in the genus Arbutus: the strawberry tree.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter X, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     Many nights, though autumnal mists were spread around, I passed under an ilex - many times I have supped on arbutus berries and chestnuts, making a fire, gypsy-like, on the ground […]

2. Epigaea repens, the mayflower, the trailing arbutus.
   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:

     Ah, who is he,—on whom young men and maidens look with pitying eye? to whom the old man lifts his hat, and little children cease from their sports as he passes, and quietly slip the innocent daisy, or the sweet-scented arbutus into his hand, which they have culled from the wide commons, where, they have been told, the good Sea-flower loved to stray.

3. Arbute; the wood of the strawberry tree.

Translations

strawberry tree — see strawberry tree

References

• arbutus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Arbutus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Anagrams

• Subartu

Latin

Etymology

Unknown. Lewis and Short (1879) suggests it is related to arbor (“tree”) (compare arbustus (“planted with trees, wooded”)), but Ernout and Meillet (1985) recognizes no etymology, and Schrijver (1991) says it lacks a reliable etymology.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈar.bu.tus/, [ˈärbʊt̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈar.bu.tus/, [ˈärbut̪us]

Noun

arbutus f (genitive arbutī); second declension

1. strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)

   Synonym: unedō

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	arbutus	arbutī
Genitive	arbutī	arbutōrum
Dative	arbutō	arbutīs
Accusative	arbutum	arbutōs
Ablative	arbutō	arbutīs
Vocative	arbute	arbutī

Derived terms

• arbuteus
• arbutum

Descendants

• Galician: érbedo, albedro
• Occitan: arboça, arboç
  • → French: arbouse, arbousier
• Old Spanish: alborco
  • Spanish: aborto, borto
• Portuguese: êrvedo

Further reading

• “arbutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “arbutus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• arbutus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “arbutus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Genaust, Helmut (1996) “Árbutus”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen (in German), 3^rd edition, Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, →ISBN, page 73a