Italus

Forms

Italus (feminine Itala, neuter Italum), a first/second-declension adjective, also used as a masculine noun (genitive Italī).^[1][2] The first syllable is short, but poets often lengthen it for the metre.^[1][2] Virgil has the old genitive plural Italum for Italōrum.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin Ītalia (“Italy”), the name of the country.^[4][5] Georges reports the ancient explanation that the Italians were named after a native or old Greek word, ἰταλός (italós, “bull”), because Italy had so many fine cattle, and refers to Gellius for it.^[6] Wiktionary traces the name of the country through Ancient Greek Ἰταλία (Italía) to Oscan 𐌅𐌝𐌕𐌄𐌋𐌉𐌞 (víteliú, “land of bulls”), usually taken as a cognate of vitulus “calf”.^[4]

The legendary king Italus is the eponym of Italy, so ancient writers saw the relation the other way round: Isidore of Seville makes Italus a brother of Sabinus and Sicanus and derives the names of the Italians, the Sabines and the Sicani from the three brothers.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source for it is Lucretius,^[5] who uses it as an adjective, “Italian”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is an adjective, “of Italy or its people”, mostly in poetry;^[1][2] mare Italum is the Tyrrhenian Sea in Pliny the Elder.^[1][2] As a masculine noun it means an Italian,^[1] a use found in Cicero, who says that the Romans did not surpass even the Italians and Latins in native wit.^[1] The same form is the name of Italus, a legendary king and the eponym of Italy, in Virgil and Hyginus.^[1][3]

Medieval Latin kept both uses: British writers use it of the people of Italy,^[8] and Hungarian records of the 15th and 16th centuries use it of Italians living there.^[9]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it as an adjective, “Italian”.^[5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the plural as a noun, “the Italians”.^[1][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil names Italus, the legendary king of Italy.^[1][2][5]
• c. 400 AD – Servius treats the king Italus in his commentary on Virgil.^[5]
• 1120–1141 – Orderic Vitalis names the Itali and the Pelasgians beside other peoples.^[8][5]
• 1426 – A Hungarian record mentions the “square of the Italians”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of Italy or its people, Italian.^[1][10][2]

Noun

1. An inhabitant of Italy, an Italian.^[1][2]
2. Italus, a legendary king of Italy, its eponym.^[1][2][3]

Related words

• Ītalia

Usage notes

A separate, rare word italus “bull, calf” is apparently a dialect form of vitulus, compared by the OLD with Ancient Greek ἔταλον (étalon).^[1][11] Varro reports, after Timaeus, that ancient Greece called bulls itali and that Italy was named after their great number.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli