algor

Forms

algor m (genitive algōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin algeō (“to be cold, feel cold”) + -or.^[2][1] De Vaan calls the etymology of the verb and its family uncertain: he sets up Proto-Italic *alg- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂(e)lgʰ/ǵ- (“(to be) cold”), comparing modern Icelandic elgur (“frozen snow”) with a query.^[3] If the Latin noun reflects an old s-stem, and was not made later from the verb, an inherited s-stem could be reconstructed.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus,^[3][4] in the Rudens, where the speaker says that cold, wandering and fear have all taken hold (algor, error, pavor).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the cold felt by living beings:^[2][5] Varro says it makes cows grow thin, Sallust names it beside hunger and lack of sleep as something a body can endure, and Pliny the Elder asks whether vines do not die of it.^[2] Lewis & Short note that it is the classical word, beside the earlier algus and algū.^[5] Pliny also uses it, apparently, of fits of shivering.^[2] Lucretius has it of cold as such, saying that cold is not born in fire, and the plural algōrēs means cold weather in Pliny.^[2] Lucretius pictures winter followed by cold with chattering teeth.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of cold felt by a person.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of cold that makes cattle thin.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of cold as such.^[2][5][4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust names it among the hardships a body can endure.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of shivering fits and, in the plural, of cold weather.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cold as felt by living beings, chilliness.^[2][5]
2. A fit of shivering.^[2]
3. Cold as such;^[2][1] (plural) cold weather.^[2][1]

Related words

• algēns
• algeō
• algidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press