celtis

See also: Celtis

Latin

Etymology

Transcription of some African word not used in Latin for the plant. Spurious word in the sense of a chisel in the Vulgate, Book of Job, 19:24, for correct certē, after which some Medieval Latin compositions used it. In a 19^th-century edition of Mulomedicina Chironis, also introduced as a bad conjecture for the second half of a new diminutive secūricella of secūricula, diminutive of secūris (“hatchet”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkel.tis/, [ˈkɛɫ̪t̪ɪs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃel.tis/, [ˈt͡ʃɛl̪t̪is]

Noun

celtis f (genitive celtis); third declension

1. a tree, considered to be the hackberry
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 13.104–106:

     Eadem Africa, qua vergit ad nos, insignem arborem loton gignit, quam vocat celthim, et ipsam Italiae familiarem, sed terra mutatam. praecipua est circa Syrtis atque Nasimonas. magnitudo quae piro, quamquam Nepos Cornelius brevem tradit. incisurae folio crebriores; alioqui ilicis viderentur. differentiae plures, eaeque maxime fructibus fiunt.
     magnitudo huic fabae, color croci, sed ante maturitatem alius atque alius, sicut uvis. nascitur densus in ramis myrti modo, non ut in Italia cerasis, tam dulcis ibi cibo, ut nomen etiam genti terraeque dederit nimis hospitali advenarum oblivione patriae. ferunt ventris non sentire morbos qui eum mandant.
     melior sine interiore nucleo, qui in altero genere osseus videtur. vinum quoque exprimitur illi simile mulso, quod ultra denos dies negat durare idem Nepos bacasque concisas cum alica ad cibos doliis condi. quin et exercitus pastos eo accepimus ultro citroque commeantes per Africam. ligno colos niger; ad tibiarum cantus expetitur. e radice cultellis capulos brevesque alios usus excogitant.

     • Translation by Harris Rackham

       Africa also, where it faces in our direction, produces a remarkable tree, the lotus, called in the vernacular celthis, which also has been naturalized in Italy, though it has been altered by the change of soil. The finest lotus is found round the Syrtes and the district of the Nasamones. It is the size of a pear, although Cornelius Nepos states that it is a short fruit. The incisions in the leaf resemble those in the holm-oak, except that they are more numerous. There are several varieties of lotus, differing chiefly in their fruits.
       This one is the size of a bean and saffron-coloured, but it changes colour several times before it is ripe, like grapes. It grows in thick clusters on the branches like myrtle-berries and not like cherries as it does in Italy; in its own country it is so sweet to eat that it has even given its name to a race of people and to a land which is too hospitable to strangers who come there, making them forget their native land. It is reported that chewing this lotus prevents gastric diseases.
       The better kind has no stone inside it, those of the other variety having a kernel of a bony appearance. Also a wine is pressed from this fruit that resembles mead, which again according to Nepos will not keep for more than ten days; he states that the berries are chopped up with spelt and stored in casks for food. Indeed we are told that armies have been fed on this while marching to and fro through Africa. The wood is of a black colour, and is in demand for making melodious flutes, while out of the root are devised knife-handles and other short implements.

2. chisel

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	celtis	celtēs
Genitive	celtis	celtium
Dative	celtī	celtibus
Accusative	celtem	celtēs celtīs
Ablative	celte	celtibus
Vocative	celtis	celtēs

Descendants

• Translingual: Celtis
• → English: celt
• → German: Celt

References

• “celtis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• celtis 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)
• celthis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “celtis”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎ (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 112
• Gitton-Ripoll, Valérie (2007) “Sur quelques noms d’instruments de chirurgie et de contention conservés par les textes vétérinaires latins”, in La médecine vétérinaire antique‎ (in French), Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, pages 251–269 margin number 39
• Heraeus, Wilhelm (1884) Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik mit Einschluss des älteren Mittellateins (in German), volume 14, page 119
• Niedermann, Max (1945) “Ghost words. Lat celtis «ciseau»”, in Museum Helveticum (in French), volume 2, pages 123–138