aranea

Forms

arānea f (genitive arāneae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the feminine of arāneus.^[2][3] De Vaan considers a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀράχνη (arákhnē, “spider”), with Greek ⟨khn⟩ taken as ⟨gn⟩, then loss of the velar and lengthening of the vowel before it; but Greek ⟨khm⟩ became Latin ⟨cum⟩ in ⟨dracuma⟩, so the Greek and Latin words may instead have been borrowed separately from a common source ⟨*araksn-⟩.^[4] Wiktionary thinks the second scenario more likely.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, of cobwebs: in the Aulularia a house is full of emptiness and cobwebs.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As “spider” it appears first in Catullus, who has a spider weaving its thin web high up.^[2][4] Catullus also says his purse is full of cobwebs.^[5] Ovid has a spider working at its old webs, and Virgil the spider hateful to Minerva.^[5] Servius notes that the old writers called the creature masculine arāneus and its web feminine arānea.^[3] Pliny the Elder uses it of threads like cobwebs, into which the willow's fruit turns before it ripens.^[2][5] The Vulgate has the spider's web in Job and Isaiah.^[5] Church Latin has “spider”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a house full of cobwebs.^[2][4][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of a spider weaving its web.^[2][4][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the spider hateful to Minerva.^[5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of cobweb-like threads.^[2][5][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of the spider's web.^[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spider's web, cobweb.^[2][5][1]
2. A mass of threads like a cobweb.^[2][5][1]
3. A spider.^[2][5][1][6]

Word family

• arāneāns
• arāneola
• arāneolus
• arāneōsus

Related words

• arāneum
• arāneus
• tēla

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e 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 f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de