catarrhus

Forms

catarrhus m (genitive catarrhī); second declension^[1] It is usually written catarrus or catarus in the manuscripts, also cathar(r)us.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κατάρρους (katárrhous, “catarrh”),^[3][4][5] a noun of action from καταρρέω (katarrhéō, “to flow down”).^[1][6] Wiktionary gives the uncontracted Greek form κατάρροος (katárrhoos).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marcellus Empiricus prescribes remedies “for catarrh, or the dripping of fluid from the head”, a cold in the head with a running nose.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a word of Late Latin medicine: Theodorus Priscianus has a chapter on it, and Caelius Aurelianus calls catarrh of the nose coryza and speaks of patients troubled by cough and catarrh.^[2] Glosses explain it as a constant flow from the nostrils.^[2] In Medieval Latin it was a nasal or intestinal catarrh,^[7] and English chroniclers describe an epidemic catarrh.^[5] English borrowed the medieval form catarrus as catarrh in the late 14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 400 AD – Marcellus Empiricus gives remedies for catarrh.^[2][4][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus describes catarrh of the nose.^[2][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it as catarrh.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) Catarrh, a flow of rheum from the head; a cold.^[3][4][2]
2. (Medieval Latin) Intestinal catarrh.^[7]

Related words

• English catarrh

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com