avus

Forms

avus m (genitive avī); second declension^[1] Inscriptions have avs and the older nominative avos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *awo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os (“grandfather, maternal uncle”).^[4][1][5] Cognate with Hittite ḫuḫḫa- (“grandfather”), Armenian հաւ (haw, “grandfather”), Gothic 𐌰𐍅𐍉 (awō, “grandmother”) and Old Irish aue (“grandson”).^[4][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who has ibi meī maiōrēs sunt sitī, pater, avos, proavos, abavos, “there my forefathers lie buried, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Avus is “a grandfather” (Cicero of Gaius Gracchus: clārissimō patre, avō, maiōribus, “of a most famous father, grandfather and ancestors”), and in poetry “an ancestor, forefather” (Virgil: Mantua, dīves avīs, “Mantua, rich in ancestors”).^[3][2][1] Wiktionary also records “an old man”.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “grandfather”.^[6] Köbler records it widely in early medieval law codes.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: pater, avos, proavos, abavos.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: clārissimō patre, avō, maiōribus.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: Mantua, dīves avīs.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grandfather.^[3][2][1][6]
2. An ancestor, forefather.^[3][1]
3. An old man.^[1]

Word family

• abavus
• atavus
• avītus
• avunculus
• proavus
• tritavus

Related words

• avia
• ava

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson