Etymologically
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argenteus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [arˈɡɛn.te.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [arˈd͡ʒɛn.te.us][1]

Forms

argenteus (feminine argentea, neuter argenteum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin argentum (“silver”) + -eus.[2][1][3] De Vaan derives ⟨argentum⟩ from Proto-Italic *argento- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂rǵ-nt-o- (“silver”), cognate with Oscan aragetud (“money”), Old Irish argat (“silver”), Sanskrit रजत (rajatá-, “silver”) and Avestan ərəzata- (“silver”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is from Livius Andronicus, a silver basin,[2][5] and Köbler dates it from Plautus,[6] who has silver drachmas.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is made of silver or decorated with silver, as Cicero's silver eagle;[2][5] spūma argentea, “silver foam”, is litharge, a by-product of smelting, in Pliny the Elder, and Ovid's silver race was the second age of mankind, worse than the golden.[2][5] It also means silvery in colour, as Virgil's silver goose.[2] Plautus jokes with it for “of money”: a man who is offered a beating says he can easily stand “silver blows”.[2] As a noun, argenteus (understood nummus) is a silver coin.[2]

Church Latin also uses the noun for a piece of silver, money.[7]

Timeline

  • 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus of a silver basin.[2][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of silver drachmas and “silver blows”.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a silvery goose.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid of the silver age.[2][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca has the noun.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Made of silver, decorated with silver;[2][5][1] spūma argentea, litharge; of the silver age.[2][5][1]
  2. silvery in colour.[2][1]
  3. (humorous) Of money.[2]

Noun

  1. A silver coin;[2][7] (Ecclesiastical Latin) a piece of silver.[2][7]

Word family

  • argenteolus

Usage notes

Argenteus was also the name of a river in Gallia Narbonensis, now the Argens.[2][5]

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 k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson