Etymologically
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bubo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈbuː.boː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈbuː.bo][1]

Forms

būbō m (genitive būbōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably onomatopoeic, imitating the owl's call /buː/.[2][3][4] Similar names for the owl occur in other Indo-European languages, such as Ancient Greek βύας (búas, “eagle-owl”) and Old Armenian բու (bu, “owl”),[2][1] and de Vaan regards the Latin noun as a kind of reduplication.[2] Köbler places it with Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *beu- (“to make a dull sound”).[5]

Isidore of Seville already took the name from the sound of the bird's voice.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Varro and the historian Asellio,[2] and Georges cites Varro's De lingua Latina;[4] it means the horned or eagle owl.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The owl's cry was taken as an evil omen, and the word is mostly used of the bird of ill omen.[3][7] Ovid calls it ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen, “the sluggish owl, a dread omen for mortals”, a line Isidore quotes;[6][7] Virgil once makes it feminine, which grammarians noted.[7][4] Servius, commenting on Virgil, distinguishes the small noctua from the larger bubo, and Isidore follows him.[8]

Pliny the Elder describes the bird,[4] and the Vulgate uses the word in Leviticus.[4]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses the word.[2][4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it once as a feminine.[7][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls it a dread omen for mortals.[7][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the bird.[4][5]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius distinguishes bubo from noctua.[8][5]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name from the bird's voice.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The horned or eagle owl, especially as a bird of ill omen.[3][7][4]

Usage notes

A separate Medieval Latin būbō meant a swelling in the groin; it comes from Ancient Greek βουβών (boubṓn, “groin, swelling in the groin”),[1][9] and English took it over in the late 14th century as bubo.[10] Niermeyer also lists a Medieval Latin bubo of Germanic origin, “boy, fellow, rogue”.[9] A rare verb bubō, -ere, “to cry like a bittern”, appears in the Carmen de Philomela.[7][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com