Fauna

Forms

Fauna f (genitive Faunae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin Faunus (“a rustic god”), with the feminine ending.^[3][4][5] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of Faunus, which he traces to a Proto-Italic form meaning “favourable”, Proto-Italic *fawe/ono-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂u-n- (“favourable”), the root also seen in faveō.^[6]

Ancient grammarians explained both names from prophesying: Varro says the Fauni foretold the future in verse in the woods, and Servius derives Faunus and Fauna from ⟨fari⟩, “to speak”.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro names her beside Faunus as one of the gods of the Latins, saying that “there is both a Faunus and a Fauna”.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Later writers made her the sister, wife or daughter of Faunus and identified her with the Bona Dea;^[2][4][9] Macrobius and Lactantius report this.^[2][4][9] Servius equates her with Fatua.^[8]

In the 18th century Linnaeus took the name for the animals of a region, as a companion to Flora, in the title of his Fauna Suecica (1746); English borrowed this sense in 1771.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro names Fauna beside Faunus among the Latin gods.^[7][5][3]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius writes of her.^[2][4][3]
• c. 400 AD – Servius derives the name from prophesying and equates her with Fatua.^[8][3]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius identifies her with the Bona Dea.^[4][3]
• 1746 – Linnaeus uses the word for the animals of Sweden in the title Fauna Suecica.^[10]
• 1771 – Borrowed into English as fauna, the animal life of a region.^[10]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. A rustic goddess, sister, wife or daughter of Faunus, identified with the Bona Dea.^[1][2][4]
2. (New Latin) The animal life of a region, after Linnaeus's Fauna Suecica.^[10]

Related words

• faveō
• Favōnius
• English fauna

References

1. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
8. ^ a b c Servius, Commentarii in Vergilii carmina, ed. G. Thilo and H. Hagen, Leipzig 1881–1887 (Perseus Digital Library).
9. ^ a b VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com