babulus

Forms

babulus m (genitive babulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The TLL compares babit and baburrus;^[2] Georges connects it with babit, which the glossaries render by Ancient Greek γαυριᾷ (gauriâi, “he prides himself”).^[3] Köbler compares the expressive roots Proto-Indo-European *balbal- (“to stammer, babble”) and *baba-.^[4][5] The TLL, citing Meyer-Lübke, gives Italian babbio as a descendant.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found only in Apuleius' Metamorphoses (4.14): “consilium ego et iste babulus tale comminiscimur” (“this babulus and I think up a plan like this”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its meaning is not certain.^[3] Lewis and Short take it as a babbler or fool,^[6] while Georges suggests a braggart, a nickname of one of the robbers,^[3] and Gaffiot and Conte also give a braggart.^[7][8] Editors have conjectured other readings in the passage,^[2] and the word has in turn been conjectured in Terence for the name Babylo.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it in the Metamorphoses.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A babbler, a fool.^[6][1]
2. A braggart.^[3][7][8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier