agna

Forms

agna f (genitive agnae); first declension^[1] Jerome has the ablative plural agnābus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin agnus (“lamb”) + -a, the feminine of the word for a lamb.^[3][2][1] De Vaan traces agnus to Proto-Italic *agʷno- (“lamb”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷ-no- (“lamb”).^[4] Cognate with Old Irish úan (“lamb”), Welsh oen (“lamb”) and Ancient Greek ἀμνός (amnós, “lamb”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cato.^[5] Lewis & Short cite it first from Varro's work on agriculture.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a ewe lamb, as opposed to a male lamb.^[3][2] Horace speaks of a humble ewe lamb and Ovid of a trembling one.^[2] The Vulgate has it in Genesis.^[2] Church Latin glosses it a ewe lamb.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it.^[5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro in his work on agriculture.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a humble ewe lamb.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate in Genesis.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ewe lamb.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• agnus
• agnellus

Usage notes

A rare homograph agna, “ear of grain”, is known only from Paul the Deacon's epitome of Festus, which speaks of awned and awnless ears.^[4][3][2] The OLD compares Ancient Greek ἄχνη (ákhnē, “chaff”), a Gothic word for chaff and English awn;^[3] de Vaan notes that if it stands for an older *akna, it could go back with them to a derivative of the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”), though the Greek is not a perfect formal match.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson