# herba
## Catalan
### Etymology

Inherited from Old Catalan erba, from Latin herba, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈer.bə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈeɾ.ba]
* Audio (Valencia):(file)

### Noun

herba f (plural herbes)
* herb
* grass
* (slang) marijuana

#### Derived terms

* en herba
* fines herbes
* herba abellera
* herba adventícia
* herba alfals
* herba arenera
* herba arrapadissa
* herba ballestera
* herba beatamaria
* herba bellugadissa
* herba berruguera
* herba blanca
* herba d'orenetes
* herba de la carabasseta
* herba de la marfuga
* herba de la ràbia
* herba de la taca
* herba de les mamelles
* herba de les patarrugues
* herba de les set sagnies
* herba de l’esparver
* herba de l’Esperit Sant
* herba de sang
* herba de Sant Benet
* herba de Sant Cristòfol
* herba de Sant Jaume
* herba de Sant Jordi
* herba de Sant Pelegrí
* herba de Sant Robert
* herba de Sant Roc
* herba de Sant Segimon
* herba de Santa Bàrbara
* herba de Santa Sofia
* herba del bàlsam
* herba del mal gra
* herba del pastell
* herba dels canonges
* herba desinflamatòria
* herba disentèrica
* herba d’olives
* herba escombrera
* herba espitllera
* herba esquellera
* herba estanyera
* herba felera
* herba fetgera
* herba flatera
* herba foradada
* herba forrera
* herba freixurera
* herba gatera
* herba gelada
* herba llombriguera
* herba mate
* herba medicinal
* herba melsera
* herba menuda
* herba morenera
* herba negra
* herba nusosa
* herba paixellera
* herba passerella
* herba pedrera
* herba penyalera
* herba perdiuenca
* herba pigotera
* herba pinera
* herba pixosa
* herba pixotera
* herba plana
* herba platera
* herba sabonera
* herba-sana
* herbassar
* herbat
* herbera
* mala herba

#### Related terms

* herbaci
* herbari
* herbolari
* herbós

### References

* “herba” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “herba”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “herba” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “herba” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Esperanto
### Etymology

From herbo +‎ -a.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈherba]
* Rhymes: -erba
* Hyphenation: her‧ba

### Adjective

herba (accusative singular herban, plural herbaj, accusative plural herbajn)
* grassy, herbal (of or pertaining to grass)

## Galician
### Alternative forms

* erva (reintegrationist)

### Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese erva (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin herba. Cognate, among others, with Portuguese erva and Spanish hierba.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈɛɾ.βɐ]
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

herba f (plural herbas)
* herb (plant lacking wood)
    Synonym: planta
* weed
* grass
    Synonym: grama
* (uncountable) grass, herbage, pasture
    Synonym: pasto

#### Derived terms

* herba doce
* herbal (“meadow”)
* herbeira (“meadow”)
* Herbosa
* Penerbosa

#### Related terms

* herbáceo

#### Further reading

* “herba”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

### References

* Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “erva”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* “erva” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “herba”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “herba”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “herba”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
* “herba”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

## Latin
### Etymology

Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-dʰ, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow, become green”), and compared to grāmen (“grass, turf”) and English grass. However, de Vaan is skeptical of this derivation, preferring to reconstruct *gʰreh₁- as *ǵʰreh₁- instead, noting that *gʰer-dʰ cannot be derived from *ǵʰreh₁-, and leaves the origin open.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈer.ba/, [ˈɛrbä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈer.ba/, [ˈɛrbä]

### Noun

herba f (genitive herbae); first declension
* grass, herbage
* herb
* weeds
* plant

#### Declension

First-declension noun.

#### Synonyms

* (grass, herb): grāmen

#### Derived terms

* herbāceus
* herbāns
* herbāria
* herbārium
* herbārius
* herbāticus
* herbeus
* herbidus
* herbifer
* herbilis
* herbipotēns
* herbitum
* herbōsus
* herbula
* herbuscula

#### Descendants

* Insular Romance:
** Sardinian: erba
* Balkano-Romance:
** Aromanian: earbã, iarbã
** Istro-Romanian: iorbe
** Megleno-Romanian: iarbă, i̯arbă
** Romanian: iarbă
* Italo-Dalmatian:
** Corsican: erba, arba
** Dalmatian: jarba, yarba
** Istriot: gièrba, yerba
** Italian: erba
*** → Sicilian: erba
** Neapolitan: erva, ereva, eriva, evra, evera
** Sicilian: erva, èriva, jerva, ierva
** Venetan: èrba
* Rhaeto-Romance:
** Friulian: jerbe
** Romansch: erva, earva, erba, jarva
* Gallo-Italic:
** Emilian: êrba
** Ligurian: èrba
** Lombard: erba, èrba (Milanese)
** Piedmontese: erba
** Romagnol: erba, érba (central)
* Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal: hèrba
** Old French: erbe
*** Bourguignon: harbe
*** Champenois: harbe
*** Franc-Comtois: hérbe
*** French: herbe
**** Haitian Creole: zèb
*** Gallo: arb
*** Lorrain: hèbe
*** Norman: herbe
*** Picard: iérpe
*** Poitevin-Saintongeais: érbe
*** Walloon: yebe
*** → Middle English: herbe, eerbe, erbe, ȝerbe, oerbe, yerbe
**** English: herb (dialectal yerb)
**** Scots: herb, yerb
*** → Volapük: yeb
* Occitano-Romance:
** Old Catalan: erba
*** Catalan: herba
** Old Occitan: erba
*** Occitan: èrba
* Ibero-Romance:
** Aragonese: yerba
** Old Galician-Portuguese: erva
*** Galician: herba
*** Portuguese: erva
**** Kabuverdianu: erba
** Old Leonese:
*** Asturian: yerba, herba
*** Extremaduran: yerba
*** Leonese: yerba, herba
*** Mirandese: yerba
** Old Spanish: yerva
*** Ladino: yerva
*** Spanish: hierba, yerba
**** Papiamentu: yerba
**** Sabir: gerba
**** → English: yerba
**** →? Volapük: yeb
* Borrowings:
** → Esperanto: herbo
*** Ido: herbo
** → Interlingua: herba

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “herba”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 282

### Further reading

* “herba”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “herba”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "herba", 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)
* herba in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. the vegetable kingdom: arbores stirpesque, herbae stirpesque (De Fin. 5. 11. 33) the crop is in the blade: messis in herbis est (Liv. 25. 15) your crop is still green, i.e. you are still far from your ambition: adhuc tua messis in herba est (proverb.)
* herba in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

## Leonese
### Alternative forms

* yerba

### Etymology

Inherited from Latin herba.

### Noun

herba f
* grass

### References

* AEDLL
* Pallabreiru Llïonés

## Malay
### Etymology

From English herb, from Middle English herbe, erbe, from Old French erbe (French herbe), from Latin herba.

### Pronunciation

* (Johor-Riau) IPA: [hə(r).bə]
** Rhymes: -bə, -ə
* (Baku) IPA: [hə(r).ba]
** Rhymes: -ba, -a
* Hyphenation: her‧ba

### Noun

herba (Jawi spelling هربا, plural herba-herba, informal 1st possessive herbaku, 2nd possessive herbamu, 3rd possessive herbanya)
* A herb:
** Any green, leafy plant, or parts thereof, used to flavour or season food.
** A plant whose roots, leaves or seeds, etc. are used in medicine.
** (botany) A plant whose stem is not woody and does not persist beyond each growing season.

### Further reading

* “herba” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.