boreas

Forms

boreās m (genitive boreae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βορέας (boréas, “north wind, north”).^[2][3][1]

Beekes calls the origin of the Greek word uncertain:^[4] it has been explained as the “wind from the mountains”, related to Sanskrit गिरि (girí-, “mountain”) and Avestan gairi-, but the formation is unclear, and he asks whether it is an Indo-European word at all.^[4] Gellius reports the ancient view that it was named from its loud roar.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus (26.3), who speaks of the cruel north wind, saevi Boreae.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The native Latin name of the north wind was aquilo.^[6] Virgil uses boreas both for the north wind and for the quarter it blows from, the north, and for the god of the north wind.^[2][6] Lewis and Short describe the personified Boreas as the son of the river god Strymon and the father of Calais and Zetes by Orithyia, as told in Ovid.^[6]

Christian writers used it figuratively.^[5] Prudentius and Paulinus of Nola have the form borras,^[6] which matches the contracted Attic βορρᾶς (borrhâs).^[4] English took over Boreas for the north wind in the late 14th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus writes of the cruel north wind.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the north and for the god of the north wind.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid tells the story of Boreas and Orithyia.^[6][8]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius reports an ancient explanation of the name.^[5][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as Boreas.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The north wind.^[2][6]
2. The north, the quarter from which the north wind blows.^[2][6]
3. (capitalised) Boreas, the god of the north wind.^[2][6]

Word family

• boreālis

Related words

• English Boreas

Usage notes

The accusative is both Borean and Boream.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de