virgultum

For *virgulētum, from virgula + -etum.

virgultum n (genitive virgultī); second declension (plural only)

1. bushes, thicket, copse, shrubbery, brambles
   • 27 BCE – 25 BCE, Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita 1.14:

     Ibi modico praesidio relicto egressus omnibus copiis partem militum locis circa densa virgulta obscuris subsidere in insidiis iussit; […]

     He then left a small body of men, came out of the camp with all the remainder and ordered some of them to put themselves in hiding, by the shadows dense thickets offered nearby; […]

2. (horticulture) slips, sets or cuttings; plants
   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 2.346–353:

     Quod superest, quaecumque premes virgulta per agros,
     Sparge fimo pingui et multa memor occule terra,
     Aut lapidem bibulum aut squalentis infode conchas;
     Inter enim labentur aquae tenuisque subibit
     Halitus atque animos tollent sata; iamque reperti,
     Qui saxo super atque ingentis pondere testae
     Urgerent; hoc effusos munimen ad imbris,
     Hoc, ubi hiulca siti findit canis aestifer arva.

     • Translation by James B. Greenough

       For the rest, whate'er
       The sets thou plantest in thy fields, thereon
       Strew refuse rich, and with abundant earth
       Take heed to hide them, and dig in withal
       Rough shells or porous stone, for therebetween
       Will water trickle and fine vapour creep,
       And so the plants their drooping spirits raise.
       Aye, and there have been, who with weight of stone
       Or heavy potsherd press them from above;
       This serves for shield in pelting showers, and this
       When the hot dog-star chaps the fields with drought.

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• virgultus
• virgultitās

• Italian: virgulto
• Portuguese: vergôntea

• “virgultum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "virgultum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “virgultum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.