clamosus

Forms

clāmōsus (feminine clāmōsa, neuter clāmōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin clāmor (“shout”) + -ōsus,^[2][3] or Wiktionary's analysis, a noun *klāmo- underlying the verb clāmō, with the same suffix.^[1] Isidore of Seville explained it as if it were ⟨calamōsus⟩, from calamus “reed”, because the reed makes a sound.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL and Köbler find it first in the Rhetorica ad Herennium,^[4][5] which uses it of a rapid, shouting delivery in speaking.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it mostly post-Augustan.^[3] Of people it means given to shouting: Seneca lists it among the faults of an angry temper, Quintilian has a “turbulent and shouting wrangler”, and Juvenal and Martial a shouting father and a shouting schoolmaster.^[2][3][6] Lucan uses it of a hunting dog's barking muzzle.^[2] Of places it means full of noise: the forum in Seneca's tragedies, the city and the theatre crowd in Statius, the Circus in Juvenal and the Subura in Martial.^[2][3] Quintilian has the adverb clāmōsē, “clamorously”.^[3]

In medieval Latin it could mean “of ill repute” and “accused”.^[7] British writers used it of loud voices and noisy frogs, and Gerald of Wales says a lake of Brecknock was called clāmōsus.^[8]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of shouting delivery.^[2][4][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of angry people and of the forum.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian has it and the adverb clāmōsē.^[3][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a schoolmaster and of the Subura.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore derives it from calamus.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Given to shouting or bawling, clamorous; of a dog, barking.^[2][3]
2. Marked by shouting, loud, noisy (of speech or delivery).^[2][3]
3. Filled with noise or shouting (of places).^[2][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) Of ill repute; accused.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ 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