Etymologically
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aquosus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 21:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aˈkʷoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈkʷɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

aquōsus (feminine aquōsa, neuter aquōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aqua (“water”) + -ōsus.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces aqua to Proto-Italic *akwā- (“water”) and compares Old High German aha (“water”), but notes that the Italic and Germanic word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European language.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato, who advises planting willow beds in watery places.[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

It describes places full of water, well watered or wet, and in the superlative Cato speaks of the wettest spot.[2][6] Of weather it means rainy: Virgil has a rainy winter and Ovid rain clouds.[2][6] Poets also use it of things connected with water or the sea, as Ovid of the sea goddess Thetis, and Horace of the languor of dropsy.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of juice that is watery or clear as water.[2] Lewis & Short note that Cicero does not use it.[6] Oribasius spells it ⟨acosus⟩.[3]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of watery places.[2][4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a rainy winter.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of dropsy.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of watery juice.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of places, abounding in water, well-watered, wet, moist.[2][6][1]
  2. Of weather, rainy.[2][6]
  3. Connected with water or the sea; dropsical.[2]
  4. Watery; clear as water.[2]

Word family

  • inaquōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press