quercus

See also: Quercus

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *kʷerkus, assimilated from Proto-Indo-European *pérkus ~ *pr̥kʷéu- (“oak”). Compare Old Norse fýri (as in fýriskógr (“pine-wood”), Punjabi ਪਰਗਾਇ (pargāī, “holm oak”). See also English fir.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkʷer.kus/, [ˈkʷɛrkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkwer.kus/, [ˈkwɛrkus]

Noun

quercus f (genitive quercūs); fourth declension

1. an oak, oak-tree, especially the Italian oak
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.441–443:

     Ac velut annōsō validam cum rōbore quercum
     Alpīnī Boreae nunc hinc nunc flātibus illinc
     ēruere inter sē certant; [...].

     And just as a mighty oak with strength in age, when Alpine Northwinds — by [their] blows, now [to] this side, now that — compete among themselves to uproot [it]; [...].

2. (poetic) something made from oak wood (e.g., an oaken ship, an oaken javelin, etc.)

Usage notes

The Italian oak was considered sacred to the god Jupiter.

Declension

Fourth-declension noun (dative/ablative plural in -ubus).

	singular	plural
nominative	quercus	quercūs
genitive	quercūs	quercuum quercōrum
dative	quercuī	quercubus
accusative	quercum	quercūs
ablative	quercū	quercubus
vocative	quercus	quercūs

Derived terms

• querceus
• quercī̆nus
• quernus
• querquētum

Descendants

• Translingual: Quercus
• ⇒ Galician: cerquiño, cerqueiro
• Italian: quercia
• Portuguese: querco
• Sicilian: cerza
• Spanish: alcornoque
  • → English: cork

See also

• rōbur

References

• “quercus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quercus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• quercus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.