scirpus

Meaning

1. masculinea rush, bulrush
2. figurativelymasculineriddle, enigma
   CHREMĒS: At mihi ūnus scrūpulus etiam restat, quī mē male habet. PAMPHILUS: Dignus es / cum tuā religiōne odium: nōdum in scirpō quaeris.CHREMES: But one little doubt still remains for me, which troubles me greatly. PAMPHILUS: You and your over-scrupulous manner merits [our] disapproval: you’re looking for a knot in a bulrush. (Literally, the unlikelihood of finding a tangled knot growing in a tall reed. Figuratively, the proverbial expression refers to overthinking things, searching for a difficulty where there is none.)166 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Andria 940–941

Declension

Origins

Uncertain. Possibly from a root similar to Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerbʰ- (“to turn (around), wind”) (compare corbis (“basket”), Ancient Greek κάρφος (kárphos, “stalk, straw”), and descendants of Proto-Balto-Slavic *karbás and Proto-West Germanic *korb (“basket”)), but an inherited origin for all of these is controversial. Even if scirp- is indeed related to this set, the phonetics (root vowel i, coda p) are incongruent with inheritance from PIE and so might indicate a wanderwort or substrate language source. Alternatively, De Vaan tentatively suggests a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerp- (“to pluck, cut off”), whence carpō (“to pluck harvest”). The figurative sense derives from the plaiting of rushes to make intricate patterns.

Related words