altisonus

Forms

altisonus (feminine altisona, neuter altisonum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin altus (“high”) + sonō (“to sound”) + -us, a poetic compound meaning “sounding on high”.^[2] Wiktionary and the TLL take the first part as the adverb altē (“on high”).^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius,^[4][3] who speaks of a temple enclosed altisonō cardine, by the high-sounding pole of heaven, and of the altisonum caeli clipeum, the high-sounding shield of the sky.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it very rare and only poetic.^[5] It was an epithet of Jupiter who thunders on high, in a poem of Cicero and in Seneca's tragedies.^[5][3] Juvenal applied it to a poet, speaking of the songs of “high-sounding” Virgil.^[2][6] British medieval writers use it of loud trumpets and voices.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of the heavens.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls Jupiter altisonus in a poem.^[5][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his tragedies.^[3][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of Virgil.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sounding on high or in the heavens; thundering (of Jupiter).^[2][5]
2. Of a poet: sublime.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) Loud-sounding.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b 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