rabuscula

== Latin == === Etymology === Uncertain; apparently a diminutive in -ula from an unclear root. L&S and Gaffiot both propose rāvus (“grey”). If that is the correct etymology, the first vowel would presumably be /ā/, not /ă/. The apparent discrepancy in consonants would be explained by the fact that intervocalic /b/ and /w/ were merging to /β/ around the time that Pliny wrote his Historia naturalis (77 CE- the only work containing an attestation of rabuscula). As for the element *-usca, compare the endings of labrusca, atrusca. === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [raˈbʊs.kʊ.ɫa] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [raˈbus.ku.la] === Noun === rabuscula f (genitive rabusculae); first declension a type of vine ==== Declension ==== First-declension noun. === References === “rabuscula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “rabuscula”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.