Etymologically
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aerius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aːˈɛ.ri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈɛː.ri.us][1]

Forms

āerius (feminine āeria, neuter āerium); first/second-declension adjective[1] A rarer form is āereus.[2][3] It is scanned with four syllables.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀέριος (aérios, “of the air, misty”), from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “air, mist”).[2][1][4][5] The TLL treats it as formed from Latin āēr with the Greek word as model.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Catullus has airy mists,[2] and Lucretius birds of the air;[3] Köbler's first source is Cicero.[4]

Semantic evolution

It means “of the air, in the air”, and āeriae aurae is the upper air, as Virgil's spear hurled into the airy breezes.[2] It is used of things flying or moving through the air, as the flight of birds in Cicero's Topica, and of things reaching high, as Catullus' lofty peak of a snowy mountain.[2] Virgil uses it of the heavenly seat of the gods, and Lucretius of the airy parts of the world, air as an element.[2] Lewis and Short call it a poetic word that Cicero uses only in elevated passages.[3]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the air as an element.[2][4]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of misty clouds and a lofty peak.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the flight of birds.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the upper air and of heaven.[2][4]
  • c. 1600 – English aerial is formed from it.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the air, aerial;[2][3][1] āeriae aurae, the upper air.[2][3][1]
  2. Flying or moving through the air.[2]
  3. Reaching high, lofty.[2][1]
  4. Heavenly.[2]
  5. Of air as an element.[2]

Word family

  • aereus

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. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com