alaris

Forms

ālāris (neuter ālāre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin āla (“wing”) + -āris,^[2][1] from ⟨āla⟩ in its military sense of a wing of the army.^[3][4] De Vaan traces ⟨āla⟩ to Proto-Italic *akselā- (“armpit, wing”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱs-(i-) (“axle, armpit”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Livy has it first, of auxiliary cohorts (alares cohortes) with their commander.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a military term.^[3] An inscription from Africa, from a speech of the emperor Hadrian, speaks of the exercises of the alares, and other inscriptions of their decurions.^[2][3] As a noun in the plural, alares were the auxiliary troops, especially cavalry: Tacitus has Pannonian alares and sets them beside the legionaries, and the Theodosian Code beside the cohortales.^[2][3][4] Vegetius speaks of equites alares.^[3] Glossaries render it by caballarius and by a Greek phrase for commanders of horsemen.^[6]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of alares cohortes.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses alares for auxiliary troops.^[2][7]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius speaks of equites alares.^[3][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or consisting of auxiliary cavalry or other auxiliary troops (the alae).^[2][3]

Noun

1. (masculine plural) Auxiliary troops, especially cavalry.^[2][4]

Word family

• subālāris

Related words

• āla
• ālārius

Usage notes

The form ālārius has the same meaning;^[4] Caesar and Cicero use the plural ālāriī for the auxiliary troops.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de