ilex

== English == === Etymology === Borrowed from Latin ilex (“holm oak”). === Noun === ilex (plural ilexes or ilices) Holm oak (Quercus ilex). Any of the numerous trees or shrubs of the genus Ilex. === See also === ilex on Wikipedia.Wikipedia ilex on Wikispecies.Wikispecies === Anagrams === Lexi, elix == Latin == === Etymology === Probably from a lost non-Indo-European substrate language. Many Romance descendants or cognates, such as Italian elce, start with a vowel that is not the regular outcome of Latin long ī, but instead of Latin long ē or short i. A phonetic value like this is attested also in Isidore, who by false etymology associates ilex with ēlectus. According to one hypothesis, such Romance forms descend from an Osco-Umbrian alternative form that started with *ēl-, from earlier *eil- (> classical Latin īl-). Hall 1939 finds this unlikely, and prefers explaining Italian elce by contamination from a descendant of aesculum. === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈiː.ɫɛks] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈiː.leks] === Noun === īlex f (genitive īlicis); third declension holm oak (Quercus ilex) ==== Declension ==== Third-declension noun. ==== Derived terms ==== īlignus ==== Descendants ==== Inherited: Aragonese: lecina, licena, llecina Asturian: ardina Catalan: alzina French: yeuse Galician: ⇒ aciñeira Italian: elce Mirandese: arzina Occitan: euse, ausina Portuguese: azinha / enzinha, ⇒ azinheira / enzinheira Sardinian: ilighe Sicilian: ìlici Spanish: encina Borrowings: Translingual: Ilex → Albanian: ilqe → English: Ilex (learned) → Esperanto: ilekso (learned) → Ido: ilexo (learned) === References === === Further reading === “ilex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “ilex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers “ilex”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette. == Old French == === Adverb === ilex alternative form of iluec