Etymologically
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boo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈbo.oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈbɔː.o][1]

Forms

boō (present infinitive boāre, perfect active boāvī, supine boātum); first conjugation[1] Ennius has the form bovō, and Pacuvius and Varro a third-conjugation form boere (bount).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βοάω (boáō, “to shout”).[2][5][1] Ancient grammarians already took it from the Greek: Festus, in Paul the Deacon's epitome, says so directly,[3][4] and Varro and Nonius discuss the word.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus,[4][3] who in the Amphitruo has the sky resounding with the roar of men in battle: boat caelum fremitu virum.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is mostly an early, poetic and late word.[3] Besides the usual first-conjugation boāre, Ennius has bovantes of animals bellowing, and Pacuvius and Varro a third-conjugation bount, of hills echoing and of a crowd shouting.[2][3][4] Ovid uses it of the forum ringing with a cry of “Give me back what is mine!”.[4][3]

Apuleius uses it of people shouting aloud, transitively for calling loudly on the protection of the gods and with direct speech for crying something out.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the sky resounding.[4][3][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has the form bovantes.[2][3][6]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius has the form bount.[2][3][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the forum ringing with a cry.[4][3][6]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it transitively and with direct speech.[2][4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To bellow, roar, cry aloud; of places, to resound.[2][3][4]
  2. (transitive) To call loudly upon; to roar out (words).[2][4]

Word family

Usage notes

Gaffiot and Georges list the third-conjugation forms as a separate verb, but describe it as a variant of the same word.[4][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.