tamarix

See also: Tamarix

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin tamarix. Doublet of tamarisk.

Noun

tamarix (plural tamarixes)

1. tamarisk
   • 1912 July, Wisconsin Horticulture, volume 2, number 11, Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 5:

     This tamarix combines delightfully when in bloom with the Russian olive. There is an artistic group nearby, where a crabtree and a Russian olive stand on a hilltop with blue sky for a background, behind a tamarix in full bloom of delicate pink and feathery gray green.

   • 1913, Marcel E. Hardy, An Introduction to Plant Geography (Oxford geographies), Clarendon Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 177:

     The high plateau of Iran, screened by the higher rims of Elburz and Khorassan from the north winds, is swept by dry icy gales and exposed to great extremes of temperature. There the high treeless steppe of short grass surrounds arid depressions or salt-pans with the usual carpet of low, fleshy salt-bushes and heaths of tamarixes.

   • 1941, Bulletin - Agricultural Experiment Station, volume 284, New Mexico State University, →OCLC, page 24:

     The tamarixes are not only valuable for their fine-textured foliage but they also flower abundantly in colors of pink or lavender.

Latin

tamarix

Alternative forms

• thamarīx

Etymology

Unknown, but considered a loan word. Often connected to the Celtic river Tamaris (“the river Tambre”) and the tribe Tamaricī that dwelt there.

Since the fruits of various Tamarix species have been used extensively to avail soul and body as manna and كَزْمَازَج (kazmāzaj) by the Eastern peoples and – speaking of the Iberian which coast has been colonized by speakers of Semitic languages – Afroasiatics held a considerable part of the Mediterranean coastlines where the tamarisk could be encountered, it may also be a derivation of a cognate of Arabic ثَمَر (ṯamar, “fruits”), however not from Phoenician in so far as the corresponding first consonant would be 𐤔 (š), but from Aramaic where it is ת (t) or from a less known relative.

However it is apt to connect the Ancient Greek designation for the tamarisk, μυρίκη (muríkē). It seemingly contains the same suffix while only the Latin begins with a separable formans, perhaps the Late Egyptian definite article tꜣ (/⁠tə⁠/, “the”), or Berber where ta- forms feminine singulatives. Compare myrīcē.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈta.ma.riːks/, [ˈt̪ämäriːks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈta.ma.riks/, [ˈt̪äːmäriks]

Noun

tamarīx f (genitive tamarīcis); third declension

1. tamarisk

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tamarīx	tamarīcēs
Genitive	tamarīcis	tamarīcum
Dative	tamarīcī	tamarīcibus
Accusative	tamarīcem	tamarīcēs
Ablative	tamarīce	tamarīcibus
Vocative	tamarīx	tamarīcēs

Descendants

• Catalan: tamariu
• Italian: tamerice
• Translingual: Tamarix
• Spanish: tamariz

References

• “tamarix”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “tamarix”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎^[1] (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 676a
• Schuchardt, Hugo (1909) “Zur Wortgeschichte: 1. Lat. buda; tamarix; mlat. tagantes”, in Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie‎^[2] (in German), volume 33, Halle: Max Niemeyer, page 351
• Schuchardt, Hugo (1918) Die romanischen Lehnwörter im Berberischen (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften; 188, IV^th treatise)‎^[3] (in German), Wien: In Kommission bei Alfred Hölder, page 16

Romanian

Noun

tamarix m (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of tamariscă

Declension

declension of tamarix (singular only)

	singular
m gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) tamarix	tamarixul
genitive/dative	(unui) tamarix	tamarixului
vocative	tamarixule