Etymologically
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caurus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkau̯.rʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkaːu̯.rus][1]

Forms

caurus m (genitive caurī); second declension[1] Also cōrus; manuscripts and inscriptions also have chaurus and chōrus.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kawero-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₁u-er-o- (“northern (wind?)”).[4] Its cognates are Lithuanian šiáurė (“north”), šiū́ras and šiūrùs (“cold, northern”), and the Slavic word for the north, Proto-Slavic *sěverъ (“north”), with Serbo-Croatian sȅvēr and Slovene sẹ́ver.[4][1] De Vaan derives the Latin word from that preform, with the laryngeal vocalized, if the Latin and Balto-Slavic forms are cognate; the alternation of ⟨-r-⟩ and ⟨-er-⟩ shows that the ⟨r⟩ is a suffix.[4] He also accepts Schrijver's connection with Middle Welsh cawad (“gust, shower”) and Old Breton couatou (“showers”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱ(e/o)u̯H-Vt-.[4]

Older handbooks added Gothic, Old High German and Armenian words for storm, shower and cold, such as Old High German skūr (“rain shower”), which de Vaan thinks are probably not related;[4] Wiktionary, however, compares German Schauer and English shower.[1] The TLL also considered a link with cauriō.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL find it first in Lucretius, who writes of the blasts of the north-west wind blowing through a forest.[4][3][5] Georges also cites a line of the mime writer Laberius.[6]

Semantic evolution

It was the north-west wind.[2][7] Caesar says that it hindered sailing and that it blows for a great part of the time in those regions,[3][7] and Virgil writes of cauri breathing cold.[3][6] Vitruvius notes that most people call it cōrus, though he also lists the two names as different winds;[3][6] Seneca places it in the west at the summer solstice and rejects the view that it is the same as the argestes, since the cōrus is violent and the argestes mild.[3] Pliny the Elder says that the north wind and the cōrus bring hail, and elsewhere equates it with the zephyr;[3] Gellius thinks the Iapyx is nearly the same as the caurus.[3]

Medieval writers kept it as the west-north-west wind:[8][9] Willibald's Life of Boniface has the sails rising as the chōrus blew,[8] and Einhard's Life of Charlemagne records the German name westnordroni for it.[8] Some later writers used it for a north-east wind.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius writes of the blasts of the caurus.[3][4][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil writes of cauri breathing cold.[3][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca sets the cōrus apart from the argestes.[3][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder says that it brings hail.[3][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius compares it with the Iapyx.[3][5]
  • ca. 763–766 – Willibald's Life of Boniface has sails filled by it.[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The north-west wind.[2][7][3][1]
  2. The west wind, the zephyr (Pliny and some later writers).[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A north-east wind.[8][9]

Word family

  • cauricrepus
  • caurīnus

Usage notes

Isidore of Seville explained the name cōrus by saying that this wind closes the circle of the winds and makes a kind of chorus,[3] and Servius compares caurus for cōrus with saurex for sōrex.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 j k l m n o p q r Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ a b c 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