Etymologically
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aura

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈau̯.ra][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaːu̯.ra][1]

Forms

aura f (genitive aurae); first declension[1] Virgil has the old genitive aurāī.[2][3][4] Servius reads a genitive aurās in Virgil.[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek αὔρα (aúra, “breeze, breath of air”).[2][1][5] The TLL says it is first found in Ennius.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius has per tenerās cālīginis aurās, “through the soft vapours of the mist”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Aura is air in gentle motion, a breath of air, a breeze (especially for sailing), and in the plural often the air above the earth, the sky.[2][3][1] Figuratively aura populāris is the breath of popular favour.[2] It also means breath from the lungs, an odour or smell, and a vapour or exhalation.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “breath, air, breeze”.[6] English aura meant an aroma or subtle emanation in the 18th century, a characteristic impression in 1859, and in spiritualism (1870) an emanation around living beings.[7]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius: per tenerās cālīginis aurās.[2][5]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato: nocte aurā profectī sumus, “we set out by night with a breeze”.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: omnēs terrent aurae, “every breath of air frightens me”.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace: arbitriō populāris aurae, “at the whim of popular favour”.[2][5]
  • 1870 – English aura in spiritualism.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A breath of air, breeze.[2][3][1][6]
  2. A wind (for sailing).[2]
  3. aura populāris, popular favour.[2]
  4. (often plural) The air, the sky.[2][1][6]
  5. Breath.[2][6]
  6. An odour; a vapour.[2]

Word family

  • aurula

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com