Etymologically
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avus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈa.wʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈaː.vus][1]

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

  • 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