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caverna

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word caverna

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC, Varro
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*ḱowH-ó-)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kaˈwɛr.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kaˈvɛr.na][1]

Forms

caverna f (genitive cavernae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from cavus (“hollow”) with the ending -erna, after the model of cisterna, taberna and lanterna.[2][3] De Vaan traces cavus to Proto-Italic *kawo- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱowH-ó- (“hollow”), comparing Old Irish cúa (“hollow”) and Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro and Lucretius;[3] Varro, in his Menippean Satires, speaks of the golden vaults of the sky.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a hollow or cavity in the earth, a cave, as in Cicero's “we draw iron from the caverns of the earth”;[2] Phaedrus has a cat giving birth in a hollow oak.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of the burrows of animals, of the holes in the body and of a cavity in a tooth.[2] Things with a great hollow inside are called cavernae: the vault of the sky, the hold of a ship in Cicero, the belly of the wooden horse in Virgil, and the depths of the sea.[2][4] Church Latin glosses it cave or cavern.[5]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of the vaults of heaven.[2][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of caverns in the earth.[4][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of the hollow of the wooden horse.[2][6]
  • late 14th century – English cavern is borrowed through French.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hollow or cavity in the earth, a cave, cavern; a hollow in a tree.[2][4][5][1]
  2. A hole or burrow in which an animal lives.[2]
  3. A hole, aperture; an orifice of the body.[2][1]
  4. The vault of the sky; the celestial sphere.[2][1]
  5. The hold of a ship; the inside of something hollow.[2][1]

Word family

  • cavernātim
  • cavernō
  • cavernōsus

Usage notes

Döderlein groups it with specus: both are cavities underground or level with the ground, but specus has a long, narrow opening and caverna a round one, while spelunca stresses darkness and dread and antrum the beauty of a grotto.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
Cite this entry

“Caverna.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/caverna. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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