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antenna

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word antenna

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [anˈtɛn.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [anˈtɛn.na][1]

Forms

antenna f (genitive antennae); first declension[1] The OLD and Lewis & Short give the form antemna as well.[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][4] Wiktionary suggests a Proto-Italic ⟨*antitempnā⟩, from Proto-Indo-European *temp- (“to stretch, extend”),[1] and Etymonline mentions the same root as a possibility.[4] Lewis & Short report Döderlein's comparison with Ancient Greek ἀνατείνω (anateínō, “to stretch up”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Plautus' Trinummus, where storms set out to break the mast, bring down the yards and tear the sails.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the yard of a sailing ship, the spar from which the sail hangs, and in poetry the sail itself.[2][3] Lucretius uses it, and Caesar describes the ropes that tied the yards to the masts.[2][3] Livy has masts and yards thrown across from ship to ship, Horace yards that groan in a storm, and Ovid a lowered yard escaping the winter gales.[3] Stelten gives also the crossbeam of the cross for Church Latin.[5] In New Latin it was used of the feelers of insects:[1] Etymonline says that this use, which reached English in the 1640s, renders Aristotle's Greek word for the horns of insects.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of storms breaking the yards.[2]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius.[2]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of the ropes tying yards to masts.[2][3]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of groaning yards.[3]
  • 1640s – antenna appears in English for an insect's feeler.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The yard of a sailing ship, sailyard;[2][3][1][5] (poetic) a sail.[2][3][1][5]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The crossbeam of the cross.[5]
  3. (New Latin) An antenna or feeler of an insect.[1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Antenna.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/antenna. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·