robur

Latin

Alternative forms

• rōbus, rōbor

Etymology

From earlier rōbus (with change of nominative after the pattern of iecur), from Proto-Italic *rouβos ~ *rouβoses, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”), named for its reddish hardwood and thus cognate to ruber.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈroː.bur/, [ˈroːbʊr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈro.bur/, [ˈrɔːbur]

Noun

rōbur n (genitive rōboris); third declension

1. an oak tree
   1. Designating a specific kind and opposed to quercus, aesculus.
2. hardness
3. strength

   Synonyms: vīs, ops, vehementia

   • c. 98 CE, Tacitus, Germania 6.4:

     In ūniversum aestimantī plūs penes peditem rōboris.

     In general, to one estimating, more of their strength is in their infantry.

   • c. 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium 116.7:

     Satis natura dedit roboris si illo utamur.

     Nature has given us enough strength, if only we would employ it.

4. stronghold

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	rōbur	rōbora
Genitive	rōboris	rōborum
Dative	rōborī	rōboribus
Accusative	rōbur	rōbora
Ablative	rōbore	rōboribus
Vocative	rōbur	rōbora

• Note: an oblique stem rōburis was advocated by some grammarians, such as Gnipho.

Synonyms

• fortitūdō

Derived terms

• rōbustus
• rōborō → corrōborō

Descendants

• Aragonese: robre
• French: rouvre
• Catalan: roure
• Piedmontese: róvol, rol, rovr
• Galician: robra, rebor (archaic), Reboreda
• Italian: rovere
• → Portuguese: roble
• Spanish: roble
• Sicilian: rùvulu
• Venetian: róare

References

• “robur”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “robur”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• robur 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)
• robur in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “robur”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “robur”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “robur”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin