agnus
Pronunciation
Forms
agnus m (genitive agnī, feminine agna); second declension[1] Porcius Licinus has the genitive plural agnūm.[2][3] The feminine is agna.[1][4]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Italic *agʷnos (“lamb”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷnós (“lamb”).[5][1] Cognate with Old Irish úan (“lamb”), Ancient Greek ἀμνός (amnós, “lamb”), Old Church Slavonic агнѧ (agnę, “lamb”) and Old English ēanian (“to yean”).[5][1] The diminutive avillus shows that the stop was once a labiovelar.[5] Whether Umbrian habina (“sacrificial animal”) belongs here is uncertain.[5] Festus derived it from the Greek word, which he said was once of both genders.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
De Vaan dates it from Cato.[5] An old law quoted by Festus prescribes a lamb as the offering to Janus for the third spoils.[3]
Semantic evolution
It is the lamb, very often as a sacrificial animal.[2][3][1] Martial calls the constellation of the Ram “Phrixus' lamb”.[4]
Church Latin glosses it “lamb”.[6] In Medieval Latin Agnus Deī “Lamb of God” was the name of a prayer sung at Mass and of a blessed wax image of the divine Lamb.[7]
Timeline
- 234–149 BC – Cato.[5][8]
- 40–102/103 AD – Martial of the Ram as Phrixus' lamb.[4][8]
- Medieval Latin – the Agnus Deī sung at Mass.[7]
Meanings
Noun
- A lamb, often for sacrifice.[2][3][1][6]
- (Ecclesiastical Latin) Agnus Deī, the Lamb of God; the prayer so called, sung at Mass; a blessed wax image of the Lamb.[7]
Word family
- agna
- agnellus
- agnicellus
- agniculus
- agnīle
- agnīnus
- ambiegnus
Usage notes
Pliny the Elder also has agnus, from Ancient Greek ἄγνος (ágnos), for the chaste tree, a shrub like the willow.[4][8]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de