lignum

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English

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Etymology

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Contraction of polygonum (“plant of the family Polygonaceae”).[1]

Noun

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lignum (countable and uncountable, plural lignums)

  1. A perennial shrub, Duma florulenta, native to semiarid areas of inland Australia.
  2. Land covered by lignum.
    • 1992, Bob Magor, Blood on the Board, page 10:
      The assembled in the lignum / Where the Boss said pigs were thick.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ “lignum, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

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Latin

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Etymology

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From Proto-Italic *legnom, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-no-m (“that which is collected”), from *leǵ- (“to collect”), with the Italic form interpreted as "wood collected for firemaking".

An alternative derivation from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”), and associated interpretation as "stray wood", seems equally possible, phonetically and semantically.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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lignum n (genitive lignī); second declension

  1. firewood
  2. (later Latin) wood tissue
  3. tree
    • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Psalm.1.3:
      Et erit tamquam lignum transplantatum iuxta rivulos aquarum quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo. Et folium eius non defluet et omne quod fecerit prosperabitur
      And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whosoever he shall do shall prosper (Douay-Rheims translation)

Declension

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Second-declension noun (neuter).

singular plural
nominative lignum ligna
genitive lignī lignōrum
dative lignō lignīs
accusative lignum ligna
ablative lignō lignīs
vocative lignum ligna

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Several forms inherited from the plural ligna, reinterpreted as a feminine singular noun.

References

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  • “lignum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “lignum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • lignum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • lignum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 340-1
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