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attono

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word attono

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
Maecenas, quoted by Seneca
Ultimate origins
Latin (ad-)Proto-Italic (*tonaō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin tono
Latin tonitrus
Latin attono
Latin attonitus
Latin intono

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈat.tɔ.noː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈat.to.no][1]

Forms

attonō (present infinitive attonāre, perfect active attonuī, supine attonitum); first conjugation[1] Also spelled adtonō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ad- + tonō (“to thunder”).[2][1] The TLL thinks the verb was made from the participle attonitus (“thunderstruck”), which is far more common.[3] Lewis & Short compare Ancient Greek ἐμβρόντητος (embróntētos, “thunderstruck”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first finite use is in Maecenas, quoted by Seneca: “height itself draws the thunder to its summits”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds the finite verb once in Maecenas and twice in Ovid, and otherwise only the participle.[3] Ovid asks what madness has stunned his hearers' minds, and speaks of women stunned by the power of the dryads.[2][4] Lewis & Short call it a poetic word of the Augustan age.[4] Servius says that attonitus properly means a person stunned by a nearby lightning strike and the noise of thunder.[4]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca quotes Maecenas, of summits struck by lightning.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of stunned minds.[2][5]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius explains attonitus.[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To strike with lightning, blast.[2][6][1]
  2. To stun, stupefy, drive out of one's mind.[2][4][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
Cite this entry

“Attono.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/attono. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·