ebulum

Latin

Alternative forms

ebulus

Etymology

Unknown, but likely related to Old Prussian addle (“spruce, fir”), Latvian egle (“spruce, fir”), Lithuanian ẽglė (“spruce”), Proto-Slavic *ȅdlь (“spruce”) (from Proto-Balto-Slavic *edlis), potentially from Proto-Indo-European *h₁edʰ-l-.[1] Perhaps (though less likely) related to Gaulish odocos (“elder”), whence Late Latin odecus, odicus and Old High German attuh, attah (“dwarf-elder, danewort”) (modern German Attich), from the same root *h₁edʰ-;[2] however, Pokorny's derivation of this term from a root meaning “pointy” (stechend in the original German) is very unlikely.[3] In the absence of a solid Indo-European etymology, it may thus be a European substrate word.[4]

Noun

ebulum n (genitive ebulī); second declension

The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
1. red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)
2. danewort, dwarf elder (Sambucus ebulus)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ebulum	ebula
Genitive	ebulī	ebulōrum
Dative	ebulō	ebulīs
Accusative	ebulum	ebula
Ablative	ebulō	ebulīs
Vocative	ebulum	ebula

Derived terms

ebulīnus

Descendants

Italo-Romance:
- Italian: ebbio
  Central Italian: lebbio (with agglutination of l')
North Italian:
- Friulian: gneul, jeul
Gallo-Romance:
- Franco-Provençal: ibllo
- French: hièble, yèble
Occitano-Romance:
- Catalan: évol
- Gascon: gèu
- Occitan: eble, èbles, èu, èul, èule, èules, èvol
Ibero-Romance:
- Aragonese: yabo
- Asturian: yerbu
- Spanish: yeblo
Borrowings:
- → Portuguese: ébulo

References

Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang (2008-), “*/ˈɛβul-u/”, in Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman, Nancy: Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française.

De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “ebulus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 185
Pokorny, Julius (1959), “*edh-lo-”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 289
Genaust, Helmut (1996), “ébulus”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen (in German), 3^rd edition, Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, →ISBN, pages 220b–221a
Oettinger, Norbert (2003), “Neuerungen in Lexikon und Wortbildung des Nordwest-Indogermanischen”, in Alfred Bammesberger & Theo Vennemann, editors, Languages in Prehistoric Europe, Heidelberg: Winter, page 189