Etymologically
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cereus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkeː.re.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃɛː.re.us][1]

Forms

cēreus (feminine cērea, neuter cēreum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cēra (“wax”) + -eus.[2][1][3] De Vaan thinks cēra probably a loanword from an unknown language, or borrowed directly from Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest quotation is from the comic poet Titinius, of ploughing a waxen field with a bone, that is, writing on a wax tablet.[2][3][5] Köbler dates it from Cicero.[5]

Semantic evolution

It is made of wax: Cicero uses it, Horace of waxen images, and Virgil the waxen camps of bees.[6][2] Like wax it is soft or pliant: Horace's beardless youth is like wax to be bent into vice.[2] Of colour it is wax-yellow, as Virgil's plums, and of texture waxen, as arms praised in an ode of Horace.[2] As a noun, a wax taper, it is the present that clients sent their patrons at the Saturnalia, according to Varro and Martial.[2] Church Latin uses the noun for a wax candle.[7]

Timeline

  • end of 2nd/beginning of 1st century BC – Titinius of a wax tablet.[2][3][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of tapers given at the Saturnalia.[2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of wax-yellow plums.[2][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a youth pliant to vice.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Made of wax, waxen.[2][6][1][7]
  2. Soft, delicate; pliant, easily swayed.[2][1]
  3. Wax-coloured, pale yellow; like wax in texture.[2][1]

Noun

  1. A wax taper, candle, especially one sent to a patron at the Saturnalia.[2][1][7]

Word family

  • cēreolus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson