Tuber terre
Tuber terre romani dixere ciclamen et quidam amuletum vocant Plinius supra in ci.
Apparatus:
romani dixere | d. r. ms. p
amuletum ABC ejp | amuletõ f
{in ci.} & a add. j
Translation:
Tuber terre is what the Romans call ciclamen, which some people have also called amuletum according to Pliny; see above in the entry Ciclamen.
Commentary:
Simon is alluding to Pliny, Natural History, 25, 67, 115, ed. W.H.S. Jones (1938-63: VII, 220). See Ciclamen.
Tuber terre:
Latin tuber is from the root √tum- “to swell”, originally meaning “hump, bump, swelling, tumor, protuberance on animal bodies, whether natural or caused by disease.” The meaning was transferred to plants where it can mean “knob, hard excrescence on wood” also a kind of mushroom, a truffle, morel” (Lewis & Short). The word had apparently a variant form tufer from which most modern languages adopted and adapted their word for ‘truffle’.
Tuber terre means lit. ‘ground-' or ‘earth growth’ or ‘-tuber’, a name Pliny lists as a synonym for cyclaminus.
WilfGunther (talk) 13:17, 7 September 2016 (BST)
