boreus

Forms

borēus (feminine borēa, neuter borēum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Later poets such as Priscian scan it bŏrĕŭs, with short vowels.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βόρειος (bóreios, “northern”),^[1][3][4] from Βορέας (Boréas, “the north wind”).^[4] Within Latin it looks like boreās (“the north wind”) with the suffix -ēus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in a poetic fragment of Cicero, of the northern pole of the sky, the axis boreus.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a learned, mostly poetic and technical word for “northern”.^[1][2] Ovid has it of the northern pole in the Tristia, where some editors read the genitive of boreās instead.^[2] A fragment of Suetonius says there are two poles on which the sky turns, the boreus, “which we call aquilōnius”, and its opposite.^[6] Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of the northern side of Persia, Orosius of the northern Scythian, and Servius and Isidore of Seville use it of the pole.^[6][2] Köbler finds it again in Aldhelm and in Waldo about 1060.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – A poetic fragment of Cicero speaks of the northern pole.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Tristia.^[2][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of the northern side of Persia.^[6][5]
• 417/418 AD – Orosius writes of the northern Scythian.^[2][5]
• 6th century AD – Priscian scans it with short vowels.^[2][5]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Northern, northerly, of the north.^[1][2][4]
2. Of the north wind.^[4]

Related words

• boreās
• aquilōnius

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften