albus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈaɫ.bʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈal.bus]^[1]

Forms

albus (feminine alba, neuter album, comparative albior, superlative albissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *alfo- (“white”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰ-o- (“white”).^[2][1][3] Cognate with Umbrian alfu “white” and, according to Festus, Sabine alpus, and further with Ancient Greek ἀλφός (alphós, “dull-white leprosy”), Ancient Greek ἄλφι (álphi, “barley groats”) and perhaps Albanian elb (“barley”), unless that is a Greek loan.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary and Etymonline add Hittite alpa- (“cloud”) and the Germanic and Slavic words for “swan”, such as Old High German albiz and Old Church Slavonic лебедь (lebedĭ), as well as English elf;^[1][6] de Vaan holds that the swan words, with their suffix *-d-, probably do not belong here, and that Hittite alpa- could only continue a noun *h₂olbʰo- with different ablaut.^[2] Many place names have been connected with the word, among them Alba, Albula, the old name of the Tiber, and the Alps, but de Vaan calls these uncertain.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[2][8] who describes a man as fair-skinned with dark eyes, and another with white head and white beard.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a dull or matt white, as against candidus, a shining white, and was opposed to ater, dull black; so alba et atra discernere was to tell white from black, and albus an ater sit “whether he is white or black” was said of someone one does not know at all.^[4][7][9] Albus and ater stood figuratively for good and bad fortune, and so albus alone meant favourable or auspicious in Horace and Persius.^[4][7]

It described white-haired age, the pallor of fear or illness, white wine, unripe olives, white varieties of plants (populus alba, spina alba), tin (plumbum album), stucco (album opus) and unemblazoned shields.^[4] Avis alba, a white bird, was a rarity, and albis dentibus deridere was to laugh openly.^[4] The neuter album became a whitened board for notices and then a list.^[1]

Medieval writers used monachus albus for an Austin canon or a Cistercian and the noun for a small silver coin and for white bread, and Köbler records medieval senses “famous, gracious”.^[10][8][11] It survives in Romanian alb, Italian albo, Spanish albo and Portuguese alvo.^[1] English alb, the priest's white robe, comes from Late Latin tunica alba, and albino (1777) through Spanish or Portuguese.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of fair skin, white hair and white wine.^[4][8]
• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of white milk and white olives.^[4][8]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius has sol albus, the bright sun.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls a right-thinking citizen as rare as a white bird.^[4][8]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a favourable turn of fortune.^[4][8]
• late Old English period – English Alb is borrowed into English from tunica alba.^[6]
• second half of the 10th century – A life of Saint Paulinus of Trier has the medieval sense “famous”.^[8]
• 1777 – English Albino is borrowed into English from Spanish or Portuguese.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dull white, light-coloured; uncoloured, plain.^[4][7]
2. Whitened; clad in white.^[4]
3. Clear, colourless, and of light or the sky bright.^[4]
4. Fair-skinned, and of plants, wine and olives of the white or light variety.^[4]
5. White with age, grey; pale with fear or illness.^[4][7]
6. (figurative) Favourable, auspicious.^[4][1]
7. (Medieval Latin) Famous; gracious.^[8]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A small silver coin; white bread.^[10][8]

Word family

• alba
• albaris
• albātus
• albēdō
• albeō
• albicapillus
• albiceratus
• albiceris
• albicerus
• albicolor
• albicomus
• albinus

Related words

• candidus
• English alb
• English albino
• English album

Usage notes

Döderlein explains albus as white in the sense of absence of colour, and candidus as a positive, brilliant white, and albus is opposed to ater, candidus to niger.^[12][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper