colocasia

See also: Colocasia

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin colocasia.

Noun

colocasia (uncountable)

1. (uncommon) Taro; eddo.
   • 1913, Paul Popenoe, Date Growing in the Old World and the New‎^[1], page 303:

     He says: "The manner of operating is to plant a colocasia root in a place constantly exposed to the sun, where one can water it abundantly and continuously and protect it from wind."

   • 2002, Wilhelmina Feemster Jashemski, The Natural History of Pompeii‎^[2]:

     Dioscorides (2.128) gives a good description of the sacred lotus, which he calls the Egyptian bean (Αἰγύπτιος κύαμος). He calls its root colocasia (κολοκασἰα). Columella (RR 8.15.4), speaking of the colocasia, which he, too, calls the Egyptian bean, says that "the middle part of the pond should be made of earth, so that it may be sown with the colocasia and other green stuff which lives in or near water and provides shade for the haunts of the waterfowl.

   • 2006, Bharat Bhushan, editor, Applied Scanning Probe Methods III: Characterization‎^[3]:

     AFM surface height map and 2D profile showing the dynamic shrinking of a colocasia leaf.

Italian

Noun

colocasia f (plural colocasie)

1. taro, elephant ears (plant of genus Colocasia)

Latin

Alternative forms

• colocāsium

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κολοκασία (kolokasía), κολοκάσιον (kolokásion). Of uncertain Asiatic origin shared with Mishnaic Hebrew קולקס, קרקס (“taro”) and Arabic قُلْقَاس (qulqās, “taro”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈkaː.si.a/, [kɔɫ̪ɔˈkäːs̠iä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈka.si.a/, [koloˈkäːs̬iä]

Noun

colocāsia f (genitive colocāsiae); first declension

1. Nelumbo spp., sacred lotus
2. Colocasia spp., taro, eddo [from 4^th century]

Declension

First-declension noun

	singular	plural
nominative	colocāsia	colocāsiae
genitive	colocāsiae	colocāsiārum
dative	colocāsiae	colocāsiīs
accusative	colocāsiam	colocāsiās
ablative	colocāsiā	colocāsiīs
vocative	colocāsia	colocāsiae

References

• “colocasia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• colocasia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Grimaldi, Ilaria Maria (2018 June 5) “Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world”, in PLoS One‎^[4], volume 13, number 6, →DOI
• Keimer, Ludwig (1984) Die Gartenpflanzen im alten Ägypten, volume 2, Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, →ISBN, page 62