Etymologically
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coloratus

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Forms

colōrātus (feminine colōrāta, neuter colōrātum, comparative colōrātior); first/second-declension adjective[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin colōrō (“to colour”),[1][3] a verb made from color (“colour”).[3][2] De Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *kelōs- (“outside, aspect”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-ōs (“cover, covering”): in Latin the meaning shifted from “covering” to “colour”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,[5] who uses it in On the Nature of the Gods of an arc (arcus) and of clouds.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is coloured, having colour:[1][3] Vitruvius uses it of a star,[1] Columella of grapes and Pliny the Elder of pears.[3][2] Of the skin it means sunburnt or tanned, as in Manilius and Seneca;[1] dark-complexioned or swarthy, as Virgil's colōrātī Indī and Ovid's colōrātī Sēres, and Tacitus' Silurum colōrātī vultūs;[1][3] and of a healthy, heightened colour as opposed to pale, in Celsus, Quintilian and Frontinus.[1] Seneca uses it figuratively of things made to look good, specious: non sunt ficta nec colorata, “they are not feigned or coloured”.[2][3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the sense coloured.[6]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of an arc and of clouds.[3][2][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil has colōrātī Indī.[1][5]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a star.[1][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses the comparative of a healthy colour.[1][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of specious things.[2][3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Coloured, having colour.[1][3][6]
  2. Sunburnt, tanned.[1]
  3. Dark-complexioned, swarthy.[1][3]
  4. Having a heightened, healthy colour (as opposed to pale).[1][2]
  5. (figurative) Specious, made to look plausible.[3][2]

References

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson