canis

Forms

canis m or f (genitive canis); third declension^[1] The older nominative canēs is found once each in Ennius, Plautus, Lucilius and Varro.^[2][3] The ablative is always cane and the genitive plural canum.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kō, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”) (accusative ⟨*ḱwon-m̥⟩, genitive ⟨*ḱun-os⟩).^[2][1] The ablative ⟨cane⟩ and genitive plural ⟨canum⟩ show an old consonant stem, so the nominative was first ⟨canēs⟩; de Vaan explains the vowel /a/ by a change of ⟨*wo⟩ to ⟨*wa⟩ in the accusative ⟨*kwanem⟩, on which a new paradigm was built.^[2] The TLL also notes the unexpected vowel.^[5]

Cognate with Old Irish cú (“dog”), Welsh ci, Sanskrit श्वन् (śván-), Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn), Armenian շուն (šun), Lithuanian šuõ, Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍃 (hunds) and Old English hund, all “dog”.^[2][3] Ancient scholars linked it with canō (“to sing”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Livius Andronicus;^[6] de Vaan from Plautus.^[2] Ennius has sī mē canis memorderit, “if a dog has bitten me”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Canis is “a dog, hound”, male or female.^[3][4][1] Applied to people it is a term of abuse for a snarling or shameless person, and also for a watchdog or a hanger-on.^[3][1] It names the Dog Star, Sirius, or the constellation Canis Major (Cicero's Aratea: fervidus ille canis, “that burning dog”), the lowest throw at dice (Propertius), and with marīnus a dogfish or shark.^[3][1] In Plautus it seems to be a restraint for criminals, carried with the furca.^[3]

Church Latin glosses it “dog”.^[7] Köbler records it widely in the early medieval laws.^[6]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.^[6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius: sī mē canis memorderit.^[3][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a restraint for criminals.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: fervidus ille canis, of the Dog Star.^[3][6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of the worst throw at dice.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dog, hound.^[3][4][1][7]
2. (of persons) A dog (as abuse); a watchdog, hanger-on.^[3][1]
3. The Dog Star, Sirius; the constellation Canis Major.^[3][1]
4. The lowest throw at dice.^[3][1]
5. canis marīnus: a dogfish, shark.^[3]
6. A restraint for criminals.^[3]

Word family

• canārius
• canātim
• canīcula
• canīculāris
• canīculus
• canifōrmis
• canīnus

Related words

• catulus
• English hound

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b 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 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