aquilus

Forms

aquilus (feminine aquila, neuter aquilum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OLD and de Vaan take it as probably from Latin aqua (“water”), as the Romans did;^[4][5] de Vaan prefers this to a derivation from aquila (“eagle”), proposed by Cohen.^[5] Wiktionary adds that Ernout and Meillet rejected the link with water and that Pokorny relates aquilō (“the north wind”) as well.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus, who describes someone corpore aquilō, “with a dark body”.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It was always a rare word.^[3] Lucilius has it,^[4] and the Festus excerpts define the colour as dusky and blackish.^[4][3] Suetonius describes a complexion inter aquilum candidumque, “between dark and fair”, Apuleius uses it of a dark column of low clouds, and Arnobius of boys.^[4][6] Martianus Capella applies it to the gods of death and the underworld.^[6]

Medieval glossaries render it by Old English brūn.^[7] By confusion with aquila it could also mean hooked like an eagle's beak, of a nose, and by confusion with aquilō northern.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a dark body.^[4][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of a complexion.^[4][7]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of dark clouds.^[4][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dark-coloured, dusky, swarthy.^[4][3][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) Hooked like an eagle's beak, aquiline;^[8][7] (by error) northern.^[8][7]

Word family

• subaquilus

Related words

• aqua

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c 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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell