Plants Glossary

Glossary of attested Gaulish plantnames and Proto-Celtic reconstructions.

Gaulish

  • Aballo- ‘apple (tree)’
    • De nominibus Gallicis (Endlicher’s or Vienna glossary) 8th Century
  • Acerabulus ‘maple’
    • 7th Century glossary
  • Actinos ‘gorse’
    • Maine and Normandy dialects ‘hédin, edin’; cf. OIr. aittenn, W eithin
  • Adarca ‘reed foam’
    • Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, glossed with Greek χαλαμόχνους (cf. κᾰ́λᾰμος and ἄχνη)
  • Agranio- ‘blackthorn, sloe’
    • Dialectal French, corresponding with OIr. áirne, W eirin, aeron
  • Albolon ‘pennyroyal’
    • Dioscorides glossed with γλήχων (cf. βλήχων)
  • Alus, alos ‘comfrey, Symphytum officinale’
    • Pliny, Marcellus
  • Anepsa ‘white hellebore, veratrum’
    • (pseudo) Dioscorides
  • Arinca ‘type of wheat’
    • Pliny Naturalis 18.81
  • Baditis ‘water lily, nymphaea’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux, cf. OIr. bádud, W boddi
  • Bagos ‘beech’
    • Toponyms (e.g. silua Bacenis from Caesar 6.10); reconstructible from PIE; neo-Celtic terms borr. from Latin cognate fagus
  • Banatlo- ‘broom’
    • Old French balain; cf. W banadl
  • Belenion ‘henbane’
    • psuedo-aristote (de plantis 7.821) cf infra
  • Belenuntia ‘henbane, apollinaire’
    • pseudo-Dioscorides (4.68) βελενούντιαν, pseudo-Apulée (Herbarius); Sp. beleño;
  • Beliocandos ‘water millfoil, Myriophyllum’
    • Pseudo-Dioscorides (4.114) βελιόχανδο(ς), pseudo-Apulée (89.13) (\"mulicandos\")
  • Berura, berula ‘watercress’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux (De Medic. 36.51); Fr. berle; OIr. biror, W berwr
  • Betua, Betulla ‘birch’
    • Pliny (Nat. 16.74-75); OIr. beith < *betwiā, W bedw
  • Blutthagio ‘a plant healing earache’
    • Marcellus (Med. 9.132)
  • Bolusserron ‘ivy’
    • Pseudo-Apulée
  • Bracis ‘malt, grain for brewing beer’
    • Pliny (Nat. 18.62); late Latin gloss; OIr. mraich, braich, W brag
  • Bricumos, briginos? ‘mugwort, artemisia’
    • Marcellus (Med. 26, 41)
  • Bugio- ‘blue flower?, hyacinth?’
    • Various personal names/inscriptions; cf. OIr buge
  • Cano- ‘reed’
    • Toponyms; W. cawn
  • Cassanos ‘oak’
    • Fr. chêne; Toponyms; no IE etym. or Ins. Celtic cognates
  • Cnoua, cnouilla ‘hazelnut’
    • Cf. cnusto- infra
  • Cnusto- ‘harvest of hazelnuts’?
    • Cf. OIr. cnúas, cnú, W. cnau
  • Coslo-, collo- ‘hazel, hazelnut’
    • Personal names; OIr. coll, W coll
  • Cremo- ‘garlic’?
    • Personal names; OIr. crim, W craf
  • Cularo(n)- ‘cucumber, marrow squash’
    • Toponym; OIr. cularán, curar, W. cylor
  • Dagla ‘torch, pine’
    • Swiss ‘daille’, German ‘dähle’, NL Daillon < *daglono-
  • Deruo-, -a- ‘oak’
    • Toponyms, personal names, Insular comparanda
  • Drageno- ‘thorn’
    • Dialectal (picard) ‘four-draine (prunelle)’, (Tessin) ‘dren (framboise)’, Insular comoparanda, Personal names
  • Drauoca, draua ‘rye grass, darnel, cockel?’
    • Dialectal ‘dragée’ < *drauocāta, Late Latin (an erroneous gloss), OFr ‘droe, drave’, dialect. ‘droue, druive’, Lombard. ‘droga’, Insular comparanda < *drāuākā
  • Eburos ‘yew, (rowan)’
    • Placenames, insular comparanda, but see Schrijver for his theory that ‘yew’ was a later insular development.
  • Epocallion ‘coltsfoot (tussilago)’
    • See calliomarcos
  • Gigaros ‘friar’s cowl, jack-in-the-pulpit, arum’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux (Med. Lib. 10.58), Pseudo-Dioscorides (says it is Etruscan); descendants are limited to Tuscany; rather than doubt Marcellus’ testimony, perhaps it should be viewed as a Wanderwort or non-IE substrate term
  • Gilaros ‘wild thyme’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux (Med. Lib. 11.10)
  • *Glasina ‘myrtle, blue/billberry’
    • North Italian dialects
  • Glaston, glasson ‘woad’
    • Pliny (Nat. 22.2), placenames (e.g. Glastonbury), Insular comparanda
  • Iuos ‘yew’
    • Personal names, placenames, Insular comparanda
  • Lagonon ‘white hellebore’
    • Pseudo-Dioscorides (4.148)
  • Lemo-, limo- ‘elm’
    • Ethnonyms, placenames, Insular comparanda
  • Limeon ‘venomous plant, (wolfsbane, Aconitum ?)’
    • Pliny (Nat. 1.27.76)
  • Melatia, melic- ‘larch’
    • North Italian dialectal (mélèze < *melatiā, *melice(m)). Swiss forms < *melation(o)-, *molation(o)-, *molatiāco-; placenames
  • Odocos ‘elderberry, S. ebulus’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux (Med. Lib. 7.13), Pseudo-Dioscorides and Pseudo-Apuleus (corrupted forms); Dialectal terms
  • Onno- ‘ash’
    • Placenames, personal names, insular comparanda
  • Opolos ‘(mountain?) maple, viburnum?’
    • Varron (De Re Rustica 1.8.3);
  • Pempedula ‘cinquefoil’
    • Dioscorides, Ps.-Apuleus
  • Ratis ‘fern’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux, toponymy, Insular Comparanda
  • Rodaron ‘spiraea, meadowsweet’
    • Pliny (Nat. 1.24.112)
  • Salico- ‘willow’
    • Personal names, toponyms, Insular comparanda
  • Samolos, -on ‘wetland plant, druidic panacaea for eye afflictions’
    • Pliny (Nat. 1.24.63); also ‘samosum’?
  • Sapana ‘scarlet pimpernel’
    • Pseudo-Dioscorides (2.178)
  • Sapo-(uidu-) ‘fir ?’
    • Dialectals, personal names, toponyms, Insular comparanda
  • Sparno- ‘(haw)thorn’
    • Toponyms, Insular comparanda
  • Suibitis ‘ivy’
    • Pseudo-Dioscorides (2.126)
  • Tanno- ‘holm or holly oak (Q. ilex)’
    • Toponymy, Insular comparanda (’holly, oak’)
  • Titumen ‘mugwort, artemisia’
    • Pseudo-Apuleus (10.18)
  • Uerna ‘alder’
    • Dialecals, toponyms, personal names, Insular comparanda
  • Uernetos ‘plant for healing earaches’
    • Marcellus de Bordeaux (Med. Lib. 9.31); not likely related to ‘uerna’
  • Uisumarus ‘clover, shamrock’
    • This term appears like an adjective of the -maro- type construction, as we have frequently seen in Gaulish, Irish, and Welsh. However, it is not cited as an adjective but rather as a noun referring to ‘clover’. Some authors have tried to connect it to Middle Irish semar of the same meaning, which is an attractive proposition at first brush; but it is phonologically unworkable. Still, semar fits the appearance of being a -maro- construction like visumarus, which makes it difficult to abandon there being some kind of connection between the two. Adjectives in -āko- have certainly been known to get substantivized, but -maro- adjectives are not known for this in the Insular comparanda. But on the other hand, these adjectives were frequently used as personal names, which is a nominalization process that could have been extended to clover. But it is worth noting that Irish semar passes to us as seamair and doesn’t appear to have ever been interpreted as a -maro- construct. The existence of Icelandic smári of the same meaning points us to a potentially regional word of no known IE provenance, which heightens the possibility that we are dealing with a non-IE loanword that only superficially resembles -maro-. Schrijver posits *semm- or *simm-Vrā as the proto-form (Sound Law and Analogy; Some Western European Substratum Words) and notes that -Vr(o)- appears to be a ‘vegetal suffix’ in Celtic (The Meaning of Celtic *Eburo-). Having established this much, we can now return our attention to the Gaulish form *visumarus*: This would seem to be a Gaulish reflection of the same non-IE term, but reanalyzed as a -maro- adjective that is roughly homophonous and also aptly descriptive of the plant itself: ‘juicy’. It comes to us from a late source, whose fluency in the language is unknown, so perhaps confusion on the author’s part leads to this term being used. But at the same time, it is probably a better explanation that Gaulish speakers used this term as either a folk etymology, pun, or perhaps genuinely a misapprehension of the indigenous term that had passed into their language. It would seem likely that the indigenous term had already been reanalyzed to fit the -Vr(o)- plant-name convention of Celtic, and it would be a trivial extension to reanalyze the word even further as ‘juicy’ visumarus.
  • Uitu- ‘willow (or branch thereof)’
    • Personal names, Toponyms, Insular comparanda OIr. ‘feithe’ < *weitis
  • Uroica ‘heather’
    • Theonyms, dialectals, toponyms, Insular comparanda

Proto-Celtic

  • *alanno- ‘coltsfoot’
  • *ambranro-windā ‘white wort, chamomile, feverfew, mayweed’
  • *amφellā ‘starwort, Aster amellus’
  • *arawar, *arawen ‘grain, cereal, meadowsweet’
  • *arbīno- ‘turnip, rape’
  • *akar(n)o- ‘maple’
  • *belisā ‘henbane’
  • *brugn-inyo- ‘rushes’
  • *dristi- ‘bramble, thornbush’
  • *dol-isko- ‘seaweed, Palmaria palmata, fucus palmatus’
  • *dubu-litso- ‘horse-parsley’
  • *el-awyo- ‘(water) lily’
  • *φedenno- ‘ivy’
  • *φuktākā ‘pine’
  • *ginso- ‘pine, fir’
  • *karīso- ‘sorbus, rose hips, medlar trees’
  • *karotīno- ‘rowan, quick-beam’
  • *kekitā ‘hemlock’
  • *kolino- ‘holly tree’
  • *konnallo- ‘cane’
  • *korkkyo- ‘oats’
  • *korokasto-, *korVsto- ‘reed, bulrush’
  • *malxyo- ‘clover, trefoil, violet’
  • *nenado-, ninati- ‘nettle’
  • *nino- ‘ash-tree’
  • *sasyo- ‘barley’
  • *semin(o)- ‘rush, read, cornstalk’
  • *sento-litano- ‘plantain, waybread (way-broad)’
  • *sex-skā/i- ‘rushes, sedge’
  • *skʷiyat- ‘hawthorn’
  • *smero- ‘blackberry, mulberry’
  • *subi- ‘strawberry’
  • *talko-, *talskV- ‘oats, bran’
  • *tawalo- ‘dock, Rumex’
  • *tellyā, tillV-? ‘linden’
  • *toryVnā ‘wheat’
  • *wimonā, wimmāni-? ‘sea weed’
  • *yewā ‘barley’
  • *yoyni- ‘rushes, reed, juniper?’