Etymologically
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aer

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈaː.eːr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.er][1]

Forms

āēr m or f (genitive āeris or āeros); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “mist, air”).[2][1][3] In Greek it first meant “mist, haze”, and later “atmosphere”.[4] Wiktionary traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews-.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Ennius (204–169 BC), who used it as a feminine, as Greek ἀήρ was in the earliest period.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant air as one of the four elements, as in Cicero, and the air surrounding the earth, the atmosphere, as Plautus' “you'd have me fish in the air”.[2] It meant the sky, a space of air, the air of a place, its climate, and a breeze, as in Lucretius and Virgil.[2]

The poets also used it of a mist or cloud and of a scent.[2] In medieval music theory aer Gallicus and aer Italicus were the threefold and twofold divisions of the semibreve.[6] English air came from it through Old French about 1300.[4]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the sense “atmosphere”.[2][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the element air.[2][7]
  • 14th century – Music theory uses aer of ways of dividing the semibreve.[6]
  • c. 1300 – English air is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Air (as an element).[2][1]
  2. The atmosphere.[2][1]
  3. The sky.[2]
  4. A space (of air).[2]
  5. The air of a place, climate.[2]
  6. A breeze.[2]
  7. A mist, cloud.[2]
  8. A scent.[2]
  9. (medieval music) A way of dividing the semibreve.[6]

Word family

  • aerinus
  • āerius

Usage notes

Döderlein says aer was a learned word for the element air, opposed to aether, while anima was the ordinary word.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper