Etymologically
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Cicero

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɪ.kɛ.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃiː.t͡ʃe.ro][1]

Forms

Cicerō m sg (genitive Cicerōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cicer (“chickpea”) + -ō, with the suffix that forms cognomina;[1][2][3] Georges compares ⟨Tubero⟩ from tūber.[4] Ancient writers also connected it with the chickpea.[2] Pliny the Elder says that the first cognomina came from farming, among them those of the Fabii, the Lentuli and the Cicerones, after the crop each sowed best.[2] Priscian says that the first Cicero was named from the look of his face, and Plutarch, whom the TLL quotes, that the first of the family to bear the name had a cleft in the tip of his nose like the cleft of a chickpea, which the Latins call ⟨cicer⟩.[2] Wiktionary suggests a reference to an ancestor's wart.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero's own writings.[3] In On the Orator he names the orator's grandfather, the elder Marcus Cicero,[2] and his letters to Atticus praise the justice, restraint and clemency of tuī Cicerōnis, “your Cicero”.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a cognomen in the gens Tullia.[5][6] Besides the orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), it was borne by his grandfather, by his brother Quintus, whom Caesar mentions, and by his son Marcus, consul in 30 BC; the plural Cicerōnēs is used of the son and the nephew.[5][2][4] Livy records an earlier bearer, Gaius Calvius Cicero, a tribune of the plebs in 454 BC, though the manuscripts differ on his name.[2]

The orator's fame made it a byword for eloquence.[5][4] Quintilian says that later ages hold Cicero to be the name not of a man but of eloquence itself,[5] and Valerius Maximus says that no second Cicero exists to lament the fate of Cicero worthily.[5] Seneca uses the plural for men like Cicero,[4][7] and Venantius Fortunatus calls a great orator a Cicero.[4] Greek borrowed it as Κικέρων (Kikérōn).[6][1]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero names his grandfather, the elder Marcus Cicero.[2][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar mentions Quintus Cicero, the orator's brother.[5][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy records the tribune Gaius Calvius Cicero.[2][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder explains the name from farming.[2][3]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian calls it the name of eloquence itself.[5][3]
  • 6th century AD – Priscian says the first Cicero was named from the look of his face.[2][3]
  • 536–c. 610 AD – Venantius Fortunatus uses it for a great orator.[4][3]

Meanings

Proper noun

  1. A cognomen in the gens Tullia.[5][6]
  2. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC), Roman orator, writer and statesman.[5][6][1]
  3. Quintus Tullius Cicero, his brother;[5][7] Marcus Tullius Cicero, his son, consul in 30 BC.[5][7]
  4. (plural) Members of the family, especially the son and the nephew of the orator.[5][4]
  5. (figurative) A great orator;[4][7][5] (plural) men like Cicero.[4][7][5]

Word family

  • Cicerōniānus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.