amnis

Forms

amnis m (genitive amnis); third declension^[1] It is masculine, but feminine in Plautus, Naevius, Accius and Varro.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *afni- (“river”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ebʰ-n- (“river”), an n-stem with an added ⟨*-i-⟩.^[4][1] The root is *h₂ebʰ- (“water, river”).^[1][5] The OLD compares, with hesitation, Sanskrit आपः (ā́paḥ, “waters”).^[3] Varro explained the word as a river that flows round something.^[6]

Cognate with Old Irish aub (“river”), Old Irish abann (“river”), Middle Welsh afon, Hittite hapa- (“river”) and Albanian amë (“river”).^[4][3][1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Naevius.^[4][5] Ennius has cōnstitēre amnēs perennēs, “the ever-flowing rivers stood still”, and Plautus ad caput amnis, quod dē caelō exoritur sub soliō Iovis, “to the source of the river that rises from the sky under Jupiter's throne”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Amnis is a river, especially a large one, and the stream or current of a river (secundō amne, “downstream”, adversō amne, “upstream”), also a current of the sea.^[3][2][1] Poets use it for water, especially running water, and for a stream of any other fluid, such as blood or smoke.^[3][1] Döderlein says fluvius and flūmen are ordinary streams, amnis a great and mighty river, like Greek potamós.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Used by Naevius (as a feminine).^[4][2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: cōnstitēre amnēs perennēs.^[3][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ad caput amnis.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of boiling water in a cauldron.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A river, a large stream.^[3][2][1]
2. A current;^[3][1] secundō amne, downstream;^[3][1] adversō amne, upstream.^[3][1]
3. (poetic) Water, running water.^[3][1]
4. A stream (of any fluid).^[3][1]

Word family

• amnensis
• amnicola
• amniculus
• amnicus
• interamnus
• peremnis
• amnigena

Related words

• flūmen
• fluvius
• rīvus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper