helvus

From Proto-Italic *heliwos, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃iwós (“yellow, green”), from *ǵʰelh₃- (“to shine”) + *-wós (whence Latin -vus). Cognate with Sanskrit हरि (hári), Ancient Greek χλωρός (khlōrós), English gold, Old English ġeolu (whence English yellow). Akin to holus (“vegetable(s)”) (originally "green things").

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈhel.u̯us/, [ˈhɛɫ̪u̯ʊs̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈel.vus/, [ˈɛlvus]

helvus (feminine helva, neuter helvum); first/second-declension adjective

1. honey-yellow
   • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 3.2:

     Sunt et Helvolae, quās nōn nūllī variās appellant, neque purpureae neque nigrae, ab helvō, nisi fallor, colōre vocitātae.

     There are also the Helvolans, which some call variae. They are neither purple nor black; from their honey-yellow colour they get their name, if I'm not wrong.

First/second-declension adjective.

• (yellow): flavus

• helvolus
• helvius
• helvella
• Helvius

• “helvus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• helvus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 282