Graius

Forms

Grāius (feminine Grāia, neuter Grāium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is not settled.^[1] Wiktionary analyses it as from Latin *Grāia + -ius, from a name attested as ⟨Graea⟩, and compares Graecus (“Greek”).^[1] Köbler likewise refers it to that word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has it in the Annals (“a Greek man of a Greek father”).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It was the poetic word for “Greek”, beside the ordinary Graecus,^[3][4] and in the plural Grāī or Grāiī named the Greeks, especially as the heroic people of old.^[5][3] Comedy and prose used it too: a character in Afranius says “the Greeks call me Sophia, you call me Sapientia”,^[3] and Cicero writes that the Greeks call everyone either Grāī or barbarians.^[3]

In geography the Alpēs Grāiae (the Graian Alps) and the Mōns Grāius were names of the pass now called the Little St Bernard, which the OLD suggests was perhaps originally a different word;^[3][4] Pliny the Elder reports a belief that Greeks had lived there.^[3]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it in the Annals.^[3][2]
• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius has the plural Grāī for the Greeks.^[3][2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in prose, both in the plural and of a single Greek.^[3][2]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Aeneid.^[4][5][2]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the Alpēs Grāiae.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (chiefly poetic) Greek, Grecian.^[3][1]
2. In the names Alpēs Grāiae and Mōns Grāius, the Graian Alps and the pass of the Little St Bernard.^[3][4]

Noun

1. (mostly plural) A Greek; the Greeks.^[3][5]

Usage notes

The genitive plural is Grāiōrum or, especially in poetry, Grāium; the plural is also written Grāī, Grāīs.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn