porrum

Latin

Alternative forms

• porrus (Classical Latin)
• pōrum (pre-Classical, Epigraphic Latin)
• purrum (post-classical)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *porso-, from Proto-Indo-European *pers-ó-s. Cognate with Ancient Greek πράσον (práson), Sanskrit पर्ष (parṣa), and Albanian presh. Compare Latin ferrum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpor.rum/, [ˈpɔrːʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpor.rum/, [ˈpɔrːum]

Noun

porrum n (genitive porrī); second declension

1. leek
2. chives

Usage notes

According to multiple Roman grammatici, this word is neuter in the singular and masculine in the plural. While the masculine and neuter singulars are found with the same frequency, the neuter plural has indeed one single attestation.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	porrum	porrī porra
Genitive	porrī	porrōrum
Dative	porrō	porrīs
Accusative	porrum	porrōs
Ablative	porrō	porrīs
Vocative	porrum	porrī

Derived terms

• porriō
• porrāceus
• porrīna

 

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Romanian: por, pur
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: porro
    • → Alemannic German: Bor
  • Sicilian: porru
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: pòr ⇒ porass, porèn
    • Ligurian: pöro ⇒ pörin, porin
    • Lombard: pòr, pòrc
    • Piedmontese: pòr, pòro ⇒ poret, porät, porin
    • Romagnol: pòr, pòrc
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: pôr ⇒ porrel
  • Old French: por ⇒ poree, poiree
    • ⇒ French: poireau, porreau
      • Haitian Creole: powo
    • Norman: pouothé
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Catalan: porro
    • → Spanish: porro
  • Gascon: pòr
  • Occitan: pòrre ⇒ porret

    ⇒ Auvergnat: porrada

    ⇒ Limousin: porrat, porrada

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: porro
  • Asturian: puerru
  • Galician: porro
  • Portuguese: porra, porro
  • Spanish: porra, puerro

Borrowings

• → Albanian: porr
• → Basque: porru
• → Cornish: por
• → Czech: pór, pórek
• → Danish: porre
• → Faroese: purra
• → Limburgish: poor
• → Norwegian Bokmål: purre
• → Polish: por
• → Serbo-Croatian:
  • Cyrillic script: порилук
  • Latin script: poriluk
• → Slovak: pór
• → Slovene: por
• → Swedish: purjo, purjolök
  • → Finnish: purjo, purjosipuli

References

• “porrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “porrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• porrum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• porrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, p. 481-2
• “porrum, porrus” in volume X, 1, column 2777, line 39 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• Walde, Alois (1910) “porrum, porrus”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 2nd edition, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, pages 601–602