# fraxinus
## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *frāksinos, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥Hǵ-s-inos, adjective of *bʰerHǵós (“birch”). Cognate with Sanskrit भूर्ज (bhūrjá, “Himalayan birch”) (Betula utilis), English birch, Russian берёза (berjóza).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈfraːk.si.nus/, [ˈfräːks̠ɪnʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈfrak.si.nus/, [ˈfräksinus]

### Noun

frāxinus f (genitive frāxinī); second declension
* an ash tree
** c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.30:montes et valles diligit abies, robur, castaneae, tilia, ilex, cornus. aquosis montibus gaudent acer, fraxinus, sorbus, tilia, cerasus.Mountains and valleys are favoured by fir, oak, chestnut, linden, scarlet oak, dogwood. Wet mountains abound in maple, ash, service-tree, linden, [and] cherry.
* an ashen spear or javelin

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* Frāsinus
* frāxineus
* frāxinētum

#### Descendants

* Balkan Romance:
** Aromanian: frapsin
** Istro-Romanian: fråsir
** Megleno-Romanian: frasim, frapțin, frasin
** Romanian: frasin, frapsăn — regional, Banat, фрасин (frasin) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling
* Italo-Romance:
** Italian: frassino
    Central dialects: frassu, frasano
** Neapolitan: frasso, frassono
** Sicilian: fràscinu, fràssinu
*** → Maltese: fraxxnu
* North Italian:
** Friulian: frassin
** Ladin: frasen
** Ligurian: frasciu
** Piedmontese: frasu, fraisu
** Romansch: fraissen, fraischen, fressen
** Venetan: fràsene, fràsino
* Gallo-Romance:
** Catalan: freixe
** Franco-Provençal: frâno, frîno, freno
** Occitan: fraisse, frais, frau, hrèishe
** Old French: fraisne, fresne, frasne, freine, fraigne (Burgundy)
*** Angevin: frêne, fragne
*** Bourguignon: fraigne, fragne
*** Lorrain: frâne
*** Middle French: fresne
**** French: frêne
*** Norman: frêne, frêine
*** Walloon: frinne
* Ibero-Romance:
** Aragonese: fraxino, fraxen, freixen
    Ribagorçan: freixe
** Old Leonese: [Term?]
*** Asturian: freisnu
*** Extremaduran: fresnu
**** →? Fala: fresnu
*** Leonese: freisnu
*** Mirandese: frezno
** Old Galician-Portuguese: freixo, freyxo
*** Galician: freixo
*** Portuguese: freixo
** Old Spanish: fresno, freisno, frexno, frexeno
*** Spanish: fresno (see there for further descendants)
* Insular Romance:
** Old Corsican: *frassu
*** Corsican: frassu
** Sardinian: frassu
* Ancient borrowings:
** → Albanian: frashër
* Learned borrowings:
** →? Greek: φράξος (fráxos)
** → Interlingua: fraxino

### Adjective

frāxinus (feminine frāxina, neuter frāxinum); first/second-declension adjective
* of ash wood; ashen
** 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 7.677–678: […] certe si fraxinus esset, fulva colore foret […] surely if it were of ash, it would have a yellow color

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

### References

* AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 588: “il frassino” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fraxĭnus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 3: D–F, page 771

### Further reading

* “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “fraxinus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* fraxinus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “fraxinus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly