betulla

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin betulla, diminutive of Gaulish *betua, from Proto-Celtic *betwiyos, *betuyā (“birch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷet-.

Compare Portuguese bétula, Spanish abedul, Catalan bedoll, French bouleau.

Noun

betulla f (plural betulle)

1. birch

Further reading

• betulla in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Alternative forms

• betūla? (Medieval Latin)
• betula (medieval?, early New Latin)

Etymology

From Gaulish *bitu, from Proto-Celtic *betwiyos, *betuyā, *betu, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷetu-yo-s, *gʷetw-iyo-s, from *gʷet-.

Compare Welsh bedwen. See also Latin bitūmen (“tar”), which was instead borrowed through another Italic language.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /beˈtul.la/, [bɛˈt̪ʊlːʲä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /beˈtul.la/, [beˈt̪ulːä]

Noun

betulla f (genitive betullae); first declension

1. birch tree

Notes

• The form betula as meaning "birch tree" appears to have been discarded from antique lexicography altogether since the 20th century, as it does not appear in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, nor in the Oxford Latin Dictionary. However, betula was common in early New Latin.

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	betulla	betullae
Genitive	betullae	betullārum
Dative	betullae	betullīs
Accusative	betullam	betullās
Ablative	betullā	betullīs
Vocative	betulla	betullae

Derived terms

• betulus

Descendants

• Balkan Romance:
  • Romanian: betulă
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: betulla
• Padanian:
  • Lombard: bedola, bedoia, bèula

    Alpine: bedora, bedra

    Ossolano: bèula

  • Piedmontese: biola, bola, bèula
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: biôla, bêla
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Aragonese: abetocha
  • Gascon: bedora
  • Vivaro-Alpine: bèula (Valadas)
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *betullus
  • Padanian:
    • Emilian: bedul
    • Lombard: bedoi, bedogn
  • Northern Gallo-Romance:
    • Old French: beoule, boul, bououle
      • Champenois: boulin
      • Franc-Comtois: boulât
      • ⇒ French: bouleau
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Aragonese: abetoch
    • Catalan: bedoll
    • Gascon: bedoth, betoth
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *betūlus
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Galician: bido ⇒ bidueiro
    • Portuguese: vido ⇒ vidoeiro
    • Spanish: abedul
• Borrowings:
  • → Portuguese: bétula
  • → Translingual: Betula

References

• “betulla”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press