Etymologically
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aquilifer

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aˈkʷɪ.lɪ.fɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈkʷiː.li.fer][1]

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