agrestis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [aˈɡrɛs.tɪs], [aˈɡrɛs.tiːs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [aˈɡrɛs.tis], [aˈɡrɛs.tis]^[1]

Forms

agrestis (neuter agreste, comparative agrestior, superlative agrestissimus, adverb agrestius); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from ager “field” with the suffix ⟨-estris⟩, dissimilated from *agrestris.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citations are from Plautus, of rustic persons and boorish behaviour.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant of the fields, as in Livy, and rustic, rural, of persons, gods, places and speech, as Lucretius' rustic Muse.^[2][3] Of animals it meant wild, untamed, as Cicero's animals of land, sea and air, and of plants uncultivated.^[2][5] It meant boorish, coarse, uncivilized, or simple, unsophisticated, as in Plautus and Cicero.^[2] As a noun it meant a countryman, peasant, also as a type of boorishness.^[2] Döderlein contrasts rūs, the country as opposed to the town, with ager, the fields.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant wild.^[7] In Medieval Latin it meant wild, sour, rustic, barbarous, and pagan, and as a noun waste land.^[8][9] It survives in French, Italian and Spanish agreste.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of rustic and boorish people.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a rustic Muse.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of wild animals and coarse speech.^[2][5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the fields.^[2]
2. Rustic, rural.^[2]
3. (of animals, plants) Wild.^[2]
4. Boorish, coarse; simple.^[2]

Noun

1. A countryman, peasant.^[2]

Word family

• sēmiagrestis
• subagrestis

Related words

• ager
• agrālis
• agrārius
• agrāticum
• agricola
• agricultiō
• agricultor
• agricultūra
• agrimēnsor
• agripeta
• rūs

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 l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill