Etymologically
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aegis

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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

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