aegis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈae̯.ɡɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɛː.d͡ʒis]^[1]

Forms

aegis f (genitive aegidos or aegidis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰγίς (aigís).^[2][1][3] Etymonline reports that Herodotus related the Greek word to Ancient Greek αἴξ (aíx, “goat”).^[4] Servius explains the aegis as the hide of the goat Amalthea.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil, in the Aeneid, has Jupiter shaking the dark aegis with his right hand.^[2] Köbler dates Virgil 70–19 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was the skin shield of Jupiter and of Minerva, the latter bearing the Gorgon's head, in Virgil, Horace and Ovid.^[2][7] Servius describes it as a bronze breastplate with the Gorgon's head in the middle.^[5] Ovid uses it figuratively of the jewellery with which girls hide their plainness.^[7][8]

Pliny reports that the Greeks called the heartwood of the female larch aegis.^[2][5] In medieval glosses it meant a goatskin and a breastplate.^[9] English aegis was borrowed figuratively, “protection”, in 1793.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the shields of Jupiter and Minerva.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of Pallas' sounding aegis.^[7][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the heartwood of the larch.^[2][6]
• 1793 – English aegis is recorded in the sense “protection”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The aegis, the skin shield of Jupiter or Minerva.^[2][1]
2. (figurative) A shield, protection.^[7][8]
3. Heartwood of the larch.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) A goatskin; a breastplate.^[9]

Word family

• aegida
• aegisonus

Related words

• English aegis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften