Indus

Forms

Indus m (genitive Indī); second declension (noun)^[1][2] Indus (feminine Inda, neuter Indum); first/second-declension adjective^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Ἰνδός (Indós), the name of the river Indus and of the Indians.^[1][3][4] Greek took the name, through Old Persian, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *síndʰuš, the word that is सिन्धु (síndhu, “river”) in Sanskrit.^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates the word to Catullus,^[4] who calls ivory dēns Indus, “Indian tooth”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it named an inhabitant of India, an Indian, and the plural Indī the people;^[2][3] it could also mean an elephant driver.^[2] As the name of a river it meant the Indus, which flows into the Indian Ocean, and also a river of Caria.^[3] As an adjective, “Indian”, it is almost exclusively poetic according to Lewis & Short,^[3] and was used of ivory, of elephants and of pearls; in poetry it could mean simply “of Indian ivory”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus calls ivory dēns Indus.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero names the river Indus and the Indians.^[3][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil speaks of Indian ivory.^[3][4]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy tells of a river named after an Indian thrown from an elephant.^[2][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An inhabitant of India, an Indian;^[2][3] (plural) Indī, the Indians.^[2][3]
2. An elephant driver, a mahout.^[2]
3. The river Indus.^[2][3]
4. A river of Caria.^[3]

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to India, Indian.^[2][3][5]
2. (poetic) Made of Indian ivory.^[2]

Related words

• India
• Indicus

Usage notes

Livy explains the name of the Carian river: it was named after an Indian who had been thrown there from his elephant (flūminī Indō, cui fēcerat nōmen Indus ab elephantō dēiectus).^[2][3] The usual prose adjective is Indicus.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson