aeneus

Forms

aēneus (feminine aēnea, neuter aēneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled ahēneus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin aes (“copper, bronze”) + -neus.^[2] De Vaan traces aes to Proto-Italic *ajos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ei-os (“bronze”), with the adjective Proto-Italic *ajes-no- (“made of bronze”) from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eies-no- (“of metal”), which also gave Umbrian ahesnes (“bronze”).^[4] He compares Sanskrit अयस् (áyas-, “metal, iron”).^[4] For the spelling with ⟨h⟩ he reports the view that it filled the hiatus on an Umbrian model.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus, who mentions bronze bracelets.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It means made of bronze or another copper alloy: Cicero has a bronze horse, a bronze statue and bronze candelabra.^[2][3] Poets use it of the hardness and strength of bronze, as Horace of bronze yokes, and of the race of the bronze age.^[2][3] Columella uses it of the rust of bronze, and Suetonius of a bronze-coloured beard.^[2] Gellius discusses the spelling with ⟨h⟩.^[2] Church Latin glosses it brazen.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of bronze bracelets.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a bronze statue.^[3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of bronze yokes.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius of a bronze-coloured beard.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of bronze or copper, brazen; figuratively, hard and strong as bronze.^[2][3][6][1]
2. Of or from bronze.^[2]
3. Bronze-coloured.^[2]

Word family

• aēneātor
• aēnipēs
• aēneolus

Related words

• aēnus
• aerāmen
• aerāmentum
• aerārium
• aerārius
• aereus
• aes

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson