abavus

Forms

abavus m (genitive abavī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- + avus (“grandfather”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces avus to Proto-Italic *awo- and Proto-Indo-European *h2euh2- (“grandfather on the mother's side”), with cognates in Hittite huhha- (“grandfather”), Old Irish aue (“grandson”) and Lithuanian avýnas (“maternal uncle”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on, in the Miles Gloriosus.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is a great-great-grandfather, the grandfather's grandfather, as Festus explains it.^[2][4] Cicero uses it in the Brutus and of the ancestor of Clodius, Appius Claudius Caecus;^[4][6] Virgil calls the same degree quartus pater.^[4] More loosely it is a remote ancestor or forefather: Seneca uses it of Caesar as a remote ancestor,^[2] and Pliny the Elder speaks of defending our forefathers.^[2] The jurists use it in the degrees of kinship.^[4] In Medieval Latin it can also mean a great-grandfather,^[7][8] as in Thietmar of Merseburg.^[8][5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, in the Miles Gloriosus.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a great-great-grandfather.^[4][6][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a remote ancestor.^[2][5]
• 1012–1018 – Thietmar of Merseburg, of a great-grandfather.^[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A great-great-grandfather.^[2][4][1]
2. A remote ancestor, forefather.^[2][4][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A great-grandfather.^[7][8]

Related words

• avus
• proavus
• atavus
• abavia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson