laburnum

laburnum

See also: Laburnum

English

Laburnum anagyroides

Wikispecies

Etymology

Latin laburnum

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ləˈbɝnəm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ləˈbɜːnəm/

Noun

laburnum (plural laburnums)

1. Any tree of genus Laburnum. They have bright yellow flowers and are poisonous.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray:

     Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flame-like as theirs[.]

   • 1950, C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Collins, 1998, Chapter 11,

     The trees began to come fully alive. The larches and birches were covered with green, the laburnums with gold.

   Synonyms: golden chain, golden rain

Translations

any tree of genus Laburnum

Bulgarian: златен дъжд m (zlaten dǎžd) Chinese: Mandarin: 毒豆 (dúdòu), 金鏈花／金链花 (jīnliànhuā), 金急雨 (jīnjíyǔ), 臘腸樹／腊肠树 (làchángshù) Finnish: kultasadepensas, kultasade (fi) French: cytise (fr) m, laburnum (fr) m German: Goldregen m Hungarian: aranyeső (hu) Italian: maggiociondolo (it) m, laburno m Latin: laburnum n Polish: złotokap m, złotodeszcz m Russian: раки́тник (ru) m (rakítnik), золото́й дождь (ru) m (zolotój doždʹ) Venetian: ègano m

Anagrams

• alburnum

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Latin

Etymology

Unknown. Some possibilities include:[1]

• from Etruscan, due to the -rno- element as also in vīburnum, alburnus;
• from a Mediterranean substrate word of the form *lapa or *laba “rock” (Latin lapis), in reference to the terrain where the plant grows;
• if the first element is Latin (through folk etymology or otherwise), this might be labrum (“a lip”) or lābor (“to glide down”) +‎ -urnus depending on the length of the vowel. For the former derivation compare Old English smǣre (“lip(s)”), Danish smære (“clover”), Icelandic smæra (“bermuda buttercup”).[2]

Compare labrūsca.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /laˈbur.num/, [ɫ̪äˈbʊrnʊ̃ˑ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /laˈbur.num/, [läˈburnum]
• Note: the length of the first vowel is unknown.

Noun

laburnum n (genitive laburnī); second declension

1. plant of the genus Laburnum, golden chain

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	laburnum	laburna
Genitive	laburnī	laburnōrum
Dative	laburnō	laburnīs
Accusative	laburnum	laburna
Ablative	laburnō	laburnīs
Vocative	laburnum	laburna

References

1. Gertraud Breyer (1993) Etruskisches Sprachgut im Lateinischen unter Ausschluss des spezifisch onomastischen Bereiches‎, Peeters Publishers, →ISBN, page 405
2. Walde, Alois; Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1938–1954), “liburnum”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, Heidelberg: Carl Winter

Further reading

• “laburnum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• laburnum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette