caesaries

Forms

caesariēs f (genitive caesariēī); fifth declension^[1] Only the nominative, accusative and ablative singular appear to be used.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3] De Vaan thinks it was probably formed on an r-stem ⟨*caesar⟩, which might be the same as the name Caesar; the ⟨s⟩ inside the word was kept because of the ⟨r⟩ in the next syllable.^[3] He rejects Pinault's derivation from ⟨*kaikro-kseh₂-es-⟩ “having a combing of the hair”.^[3] The OLD and the TLL compare Sanskrit केसर (késara, “hair, mane”), and Wiktionary gives the traditional reconstruction Proto-Indo-European *kéysero- (“combed hair”).^[2][4][1] Ancient grammarians derived it from caedō (“to cut”), so that it would be used only of men; the TLL notes that this is wrong.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first,^[3][5] in the Miles Gloriosus: vide caesaries quam decet, “see how well his hair becomes him”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is long, flowing or luxuriant hair, mostly in poetry and only in the singular.^[2][6] Lewis & Short add that it was dark hair, beautiful to Roman taste.^[6] It is used most often of men, as Virgil's mother who breathed beauty into her son's hair, but also of women in Catullus, Virgil and Ovid.^[6][4] Livy has it in prose of uncut hair.^[6] Ovid uses it once of a beard, and Grattius of a dog's coat.^[6] Valerius Flaccus calls the plume of a helmet its caesaries.^[2] Church Latin has “head of hair”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a man's fine hair.^[2][6][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus, of a woman's hair.^[6][4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of hair made beautiful by a mother.^[6][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of long uncut hair.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Long, flowing, luxuriant hair, a head of hair.^[2][6][1][7]
2. (rare) The hair of the beard; a dog's coat.^[6]
3. The plume of a helmet.^[2]

Word family

• caesariātus

Related words

• coma
• capillus
• crīnis

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson