faenum

== Latin == === Alternative forms === fēnum, foenum === Etymology === From Proto-Italic *fēnom, from earlier *θēnom, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-no- (“yield”), from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”), with semantic shift "to suckle" > "to bring forth" > "produce, yield" > "hay". See also Latin fecundus (“fertile”). === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈfae̯.nũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈfɛː.num] === Noun === faenum n (genitive faenī); second declension hay 124 CE – c. 170 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphōsēs 3.29: c. 400 CE, Vegetius, Mūlomedicīna 2.148.1: Sī fimum gallināceum animal in hordeō comedērit vel faenō sūmpserit, quasi ā venēnātīs bēstiīs percussum cruciātur […] If the animal has eaten chicken excrement in barley or taken with the hay, it is tormented as if struck by venomous beasts […] (loosely, rare) any dried plant fenugreek ==== Usage notes ==== The plural is rare, understandably for a mass noun, with four attestations in Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, two of them classical. ==== Declension ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== See also fēnum. === References === “faenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “faenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers “faenum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. “faenum” in volume VI 1, column 165, line 72 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present