anfractus

Forms

ānfrāctus m (genitive ānfrāctūs); fourth declension^[1] The adjective is ānfrāctus, -a, -um.^[2][1] The OLD also records the spelling amf-,^[2] which Lewis and Short reject.^[3] Accius and Varro have a neuter noun anfrāctum.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ambi- (“around”) + frangō (“to break”), first as an adjective, “bent”, and then as a noun of action made from it.^[2][1] Wiktionary also allows an unattested compound verb ⟨*ānfringō⟩ as the base.^[1][3] The TLL reports another view, that it is a compound of agō (“to drive”) and its participle āctus with a prefix ⟨anfr-⟩ from ambi-, as perhaps in Umbrian ambretuto (“let them go around”);^[4] Varro and other ancient writers took it as a compound of ⟨amb-⟩ and frangō.^[4]

De Vaan traces frangō to Proto-Italic *frang- and Proto-Indo-European *bhr-n-ǵ- (“to break”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is Accius,^[6] whose phrase terrārum anfrācta, “the windings of the lands”, Varro quotes.^[3] Köbler finds the noun first in Lucretius,^[6] of an island round which the sea flows in great windings.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it of the bend that a perfect sphere lacks, of the circuits of the sun (eight times seven circuits for a person's age), and of a long, roundabout period in speech.^[2] Nepos and Caesar use it of the winding course of a road and of a detour,^[2] Valerius Flaccus of a horse's wheeling turn, and Pliny the Elder of the spiral of rams' horns.^[2] Quintilian speaks of the intricacies of law.^[2] Late writers use it of the twists of care and of error.^[4]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius has terrārum anfrācta, the windings of the lands.^[3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the noun of the windings of a seashore.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of curves, of the sun's circuits and of circumlocution.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the coil of rams' horns.^[2][6]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the intricacies of law.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bend or curvature in a line or surface.^[2][3]
2. The circular course of a heavenly body, a revolution; a wheeling turn.^[2]
3. A winding course, as of a valley, stream or seashore; a detour.^[2][3]
4. A spiral, coil.^[2]
5. (figurative) Circumlocution in style; an intricacy of law.^[2]

Adjective

1. Curved, bent, winding.^[2][3]

Word family

• ānfrāctuōsus

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 p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de