faenum

• fēnum, foenum

From Proto-Italic *fēnom, from earlier *θēnom, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)-no- (“yield”), from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”), with semantic shift "to suckle" > "to bring forth" > "produce, yield" > "hay". See also Latin fecundus (“fertile”).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈfae̯.num/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.num/,

faenum n (genitive faenī); second declension

1. hay
   • 234 BCE – 149 BCE, Cato the Elder, De Agri Cultura 5.8:

     Item faenum cordum, sīcīlīmenta dē prātō, ea arida conditō.

     In the same way, second-crop hay, aftermath from the meadow, store them dry.

   • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 2.16.3:

     Laetō pinguīque campō non dēsīderātur īnfluens rīvus, meliusque habētur faenum, quod suāpte nātūrā sūcōsō gignitur solō, quam quod inrigātum aquīs ēlicitur.

     In a fertile and fat field there is no need for an inflowing stream, and the hay which is borne by its own nature in moist soil is considered better than that which is enticed, irrigated with water.

   • 124 CE – c. 170 CE, Apuleius, Metamorphōsēs 3.29:

     Tunc igitur ā rosīs et quidem necessāriō temperāvī et cāsum praesentem tolerāns in asinī faciem faena rōdēbam.

     So abstaining then, and with reason, from the roses and tolerating the present misfortune I was munching on hay in the likeness of a donkey.

   • c. 400 CE, Vegetius, Mūlomedicīna 2.148.1:

     Sī fimum gallināceum animal in hordeō comedērit vel faenō sūmpserit, quasi ā venēnātīs bēstiīs percussum cruciātur

     If the animal has eaten chicken excrement in barley or taken with the hay, it is tormented as if struck by venomous beasts

2. (loosely, rare) any dried plant
   • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 2.10.32:

     Similis ratiō avēnae est, quae autumnō sata partim caeditur in faenum vel pābulum dum adhūc viret, partim sēminī custōdītur.

     The same method is for oats, which, sown in autumn, are partially cut in hay or fodder while still green, and partially kept for seed.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 24.118.178:

     Iūmentīs herba nōn alia grātior, sīve viridis sīve in fēnō siccāta et, cum dētur, adspersa aquā.

     No other herb is more welcome to beasts of burden, either green or dried into hay, and besprinkled with water.

3. fenugreek

The plural is rare, understandably for a mass noun, with four attestations in Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, two of them classical.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

See also fēnum.

• “faenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “faenum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• faenum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “faenum” in volume VI 1, column 165, line 72 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present