anthrax

Forms

anthrax m (genitive anthracis); third declension^[1] The accusative plural is anthracas, in the Greek form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄνθραξ (ánthrax, “coal, live coal”).^[4][3][1] The further origin of the Greek word is unclear;^[5][6] Beekes, as Etymonline reports, takes it to be probably from a pre-Greek language.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius uses it for natural cinnabar, the ore from which vermilion was made.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

In medicine it named a virulent ulcer, a sense for which the native Latin word was carbunculus;^[4][2] the glossaries explain it so, and Marcellus Empiricus and Pliny Valerianus use the Greek accusative plural anthracas.^[2][3]

Medieval Latin used it for a red gem, the carbuncle, for an ulcer or boil, and for redness of the skin.^[7][8][9] English borrowed it in the late 14th century for a severe boil; the sense of the cattle disease dates from 1876.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for natural cinnabar.^[4][3][5]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as anthrax, for a severe boil.^[6]
• 1876 – The English word is first used for the disease of sheep and cattle.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Natural cinnabar.^[4][3]
2. (medicine) A virulent ulcer, a carbuncle.^{[4][3][2][10]}
3. (Medieval Latin) A red gem, carbuncle.^[7]
4. (Medieval Latin) A pustule or boil; redness of the skin.^[8][7][9]

Word family

• anthracinus

Related words

• English anthrax

Usage notes

Anthrax was also a personal name: in Plautus' Aulularia it is the name of a cook, and it appears in inscriptions as Antrax.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier