anguis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈaŋ.ɡʷɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaŋ.ɡʷis]^[1]

Forms

anguis m or f (genitive anguis); third declension^[1] The ablative is angue or anguī; it is masculine or feminine.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *angʷis, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éngʷʰis (“snake”).^[4][1] Several languages have a similar stem without the nasal, as Ancient Greek ἔχις (ékhis, “viper”) and Ancient Greek ὄφις (óphis, “snake”); de Vaan suggests the /n/ came in by analogy with verbs for “to twist, wind”.^[4][1] Cognate with Middle Irish escung (“eel”), Lithuanian angìs (“snake”), Old Prussian angis, Russian ⟨už⟩ and Old High German unc (“snake”).^[4][2][5] Isidore derived it from its being ⟨angulōsus⟩ “full of angles”, never straight.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan's first attestation is Naevius, whom Köbler dates c. 235–200 BC.^[4][7] The OLD's earliest citation for the plain snake is from Lucretius, but Ennius and Plautus already have snakes of myth and portent.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant a snake, serpent, and in Plautus snakes as portents or in magic; in Ovid anguis Aesculāpius was the house snake, in whose form Aesculapius came to Rome.^[2] In Virgil it was used of mythical serpents and dragons, and in Ennius of the snakes on mythical beings and goddesses.^[2] In Cicero it meant an image of a snake, and in Virgil, Cicero and Vitruvius the constellations Draco, Serpens and Hydra.^[2][8] Döderlein contrasts serpere, moving without feet by twisting the body, with rēpere, creeping on small feet.^[9]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a snake.^[10] British Medieval Latin used it for a snake, a water snake, and the constellation Draco.^[11] Its derivative anguīlla means “eel”, and Italian has the learned angue.^[4][1]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[4][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of the snakes of mythical beings.^[2][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of a snake.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the constellation Draco.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A snake, serpent.^[2]
2. A mythical serpent or dragon.^[2]
3. An image of a snake.^[2]
4. The constellation Draco, Serpens or Hydra.^[2]

Word family

• angueus
• anguicomus
• anguiculus
• anguifer
• anguigena
• anguīlla
• anguimanus
• anguineus
• anguīnus
• anguipēs
• anguen
• anguitenēns

Related words

• serpēns
• coluber

Usage notes

Döderlein's distinction between serpere and rēpere bears on serpēns and anguis.^[9]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ 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