Etymologically
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cardiacus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [karˈdi.a.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [karˈdiː.a.kus][1]

Forms

cardiacus (feminine cardiaca, neuter cardiacum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek καρδιακός (kardiakós, “of the heart”),[2][1][3] from καρδία (kardía, “heart; stomach”).[4] Köbler traces the Greek noun to Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- (“heart”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates the noun from Cicero,[4] who writes that this should perhaps not be attributed to sufferers from the disorder either, haud sciō an nec cardiacīs hoc tribuendum sit.[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant of or affecting the heart or stomach;[2][3] morbus cardiacus, in Celsus and Pliny the Elder, was a disorder of the heart or stomach, perhaps heartburn.[2][3] A person with this disorder was cardiacus, and the masculine was used as a noun for such a sufferer: Horace says that a sick man is not cardiacus, Juvenal has a man who would never send a cup to a friend with the disorder, and Seneca says that drinking and sweating are a cardiac patient's life.[2][3] Vegetius uses it of horses and cattle.[3] Isidore has a feminine noun cardiacē for the disease.[5]

Medieval Latin used it for one suffering from heart disease,[6] and British medieval writers for the heart, for cardiac fever and for heart disease generally.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the noun for sufferers from the disorder.[2][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a sick man.[2][4]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in morbus cardiacus.[2][4]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a friend with the disorder.[2][4]
  • c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it of horses and cattle.[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or affecting the heart or stomach;[2][3] morbus cardiacus, a disorder of the heart or stomach, perhaps heartburn.[2][3]
  2. Suffering from such a disorder.[2][3]

Noun

  1. A person suffering from a disorder of the heart or stomach.[2][1]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Heart disease, cardiac fever.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press