barbatus

Forms

barbātus (feminine barbāta, neuter barbātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin barba (“beard”) + -ātus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *farfā- (“beard”) for barba, with ⟨b-⟩ by assimilation; its cognates Old High German bart and Lithuanian barzdà have an ⟨*a⟩ that ablaut hardly explains, pointing to a non-Indo-European word borrowed into the European languages.^[4] The adjective may go back to an old denominal formation shared with Balto-Slavic, or be an independent creation.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on,^[3] who uses it of a bearded man.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is bearded, of men: Cicero says Jupiter is always shown bearded and Apollo beardless.^[5] It marks a philosopher, as Persius' bearded master, the men of old, as Cicero's ancients, bearded as it were, and adulthood: Horace mocks a bearded man who likes to ride a hobby-horse.^[2] It is used of animals, as Varro's bearded mullet, and of things.^[2] It was a very old Roman cognomen, borne by consuls of the Horatii and Quinctii in the 5th century BC.^[2][3] In Medieval Latin it is a lay brother who has not vowed to shave his beard.^[6] Its Romance descendants include Italian barbato and Spanish barbado.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a bearded man.^[2][3][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a bearded mullet.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of bearded Jupiter and of the bearded ancients.^[5][2][7]
• 34–62 AD – Persius of a bearded philosopher.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a beard, bearded; of men of old, of philosophers, of adults.^[2][5][1][8]
2. Of animals or things, bearded, tufted.^[2]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A lay brother who has not vowed to shave his beard.^[6]

Word family

• barbātulus

Related words

• barba

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson