Etymologically
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algor

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈaɫ.ɡɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈal.ɡor][1]

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]

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