aquilifer

Forms

aquilifer m (genitive aquiliferī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aquila (“eagle”) + -fer (“bearing”),^[2][1][3] literally “eagle-bearer”.^[4] The second element belongs to ferō (“to carry”),^[1][5] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Caesar,^[5][7] who in the Gallic War writes of the aquilifer Petrosidius throwing the eagle (aquilam proiecit).^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The word always named the officer who carried the eagle, the chief standard of a Roman legion.^[2][4][1] Caesar uses it again in the Civil War, and it recurs in Valerius Maximus, Suetonius, Tacitus and in inscriptions.^[4][7] Vegetius defines the aquiliferi as “those who carry the eagle”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar names the standard-bearer of a legion aquilifer.^[7][4][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it.^[4][7][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it in the Histories.^[7][5]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius explains the title in his manual of the art of war.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The standard-bearer of a legion, who carried its eagle.^[2][4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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