Etymologically
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anser

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈãː.sɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈan.ser][1]

Forms

ānser m (genitive ānseris); third declension[1] It is usually masculine, feminine in Varro and Columella.[2] The Appendix Probi censures the form ansar.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *χans-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”).[5] The initial /h/ was lost, and the long /ā/ is regular before ⟨ns⟩;[5] Leumann explains the ⟨-er-⟩ of the oblique cases from an accusative ⟨*hānerem⟩ remade after the genitive.[5] Cognate with Old Irish géiss (“swan”), Sanskrit हंस (haṁsá-, “goose”), Ancient Greek χήν (khḗn, “goose”), Lithuanian žąsìs (“goose”), Old High German gans (“goose”) and Old English gōs (“goose”).[5]

Isidore of Seville thought the name came from anas (“duck”), by derivation or because both birds swim.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] who has a man who scares people away with his shouting as geese are scared off the grain.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is the goose, sacred to Juno, whose cackling saved the Capitol in the Gallic war;[2] Lewis & Short note the honour in which the Romans held it.[2] Isidore of Seville says no animal scents a man as the goose does, which is why its cry betrayed the Gauls climbing the Capitol.[6] Cato gives instructions for fattening geese and Varro describes large flocks kept on villas.[4] Anser masculus is the gander, and the Amyclaean goose in the Ciris is the swan of Leda.[7][2] Pliny the Elder says that in Germany the small white geese are called gantae.[4]

The word did not pass into the Romance languages, where auca replaced it.[4] In British medieval Latin it also named the gannet, in the phrase anser Bassanus.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of geese scared from the grain.[4][5][9]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato on fattening geese.[4][9]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy tells how the geese saved the Capitol.[2][9]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder on the gantae of Germany.[4][9]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name from anas.[6][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A goose;[7][2][1] anser masculus, a gander;[7] Amyclaeus anser, the swan.[7][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) anser Bassanus, the gannet.[8]

Word family

  • anserculus
  • ānserīnus

Usage notes

Anser was also a Roman cognomen, borne by a poet of Virgil's time whom Ovid calls more wanton than Cinna;[7][2] Servius thought Virgil alludes to him in the ninth Eclogue.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de