Etymologically
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abavus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈa.ba.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.ba.vus][1]

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]

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