caeruleus

Forms

caeruleus (feminine caerulea, neuter caeruleum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Poets use the shorter caerulus as often.^[2][3]

Etymology

It arose by dissimilation from ⟨*caelulus⟩ or ⟨*caelulum⟩, a diminutive of caelum (“sky”), so first “sky-coloured”.^[4][2][1] The TLL accepts the derivation from ⟨caelum⟩ but notes that the ending has no proven explanation.^[5] De Vaan traces ⟨caelum⟩ to Proto-Italic *kailo- (“sky”) and, tentatively, Proto-Indo-European *keh₂i-lo- (“whole”).^[4] Wiktionary notes that in Classical Latin it is the colour of deep water and the rainy sky rather than of a clear sky.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Naevius;^[6] Ennius' Annals have “whom you will raise to the blue precincts of the sky”, and the blue sea foaming under the ships.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first the blue of the sky and of the sea, greenish blue, as in Ennius, and so of rivers, as Virgil's blue Tiber, of fish and islands.^[2][3] It is an epithet of sea and river gods, as Virgil's blue seer Proteus, and of their belongings, such as Scylla's sea dogs.^[2][1] Of snakes it is a glossy greenish blue, of eyes blue, as Cicero's blue eyes of Neptune, and of cloth dyed blue, especially with woad, as Ennius' blue cloak.^[2][1] Ennius also uses it of blue-green meadows, and Ovid of dark sweat, so that it can mean dark, dusky or gloomy, of clouds, shadows and things of the underworld.^[2][1] Rarely it is heavenly, and as a proper name it is a spring and aqueduct at Rome.^[1][3]

Church Latin glosses it “light blue, blue”.^[7] English cerulean is from it, first in the 1660s as “sky-blue”.^[8]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the sky, the sea, a snake and a cloak.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of Neptune's blue eyes.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the Tiber and the sea god Proteus.^[2][6]
• 1660s – English cerulean is formed from it.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of the sky) Blue, azure.^[2][3][1][7]
2. (of the sea, rivers) Blue, greenish blue;^[2][3] of or belonging to sea and river gods.^[2][1]
3. (of snakes) Glossy greenish blue;^[2][1] (of eyes) blue.^[2][1]
4. Dyed blue, coloured with woad.^[2][1]
5. Bluish green; dark-coloured, dusky, gloomy.^[2][1]
6. (rare) Heavenly, celestial.^[1]

Word family

• caerulāns
• caeruleātus
• caeruleum
• subcaeruleus
• caerula

Related words

• caelum
• caesius
• English cerulean

References

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