colossus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kɔˈɫɔs.sʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [koˈlɔs.sus]^[1]

Forms

colossus m (genitive colossī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “large statue”).^[2][1][3] Etymonline calls the Greek word of unknown origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca the Younger uses it in his Letters.^[5][6] Köbler dates Seneca 4 BC–65 AD.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant a gigantic statue, in Pliny, Suetonius and Statius, and especially the celebrated bronze statue of the sun god at Rhodes, which Pliny and Suetonius describe.^[8][2] Lewis & Short note that it was seventy ells high.^[8] The Historia Augusta uses an adjective colossus “colossal” of statues.^[6][7]

Medieval writers used it of tall columns and statues, of Nero's statue and the statue of the Sun at Rhodes, and by confusion of the amphitheatre, the Colosseum.^[9][7] English colossus is recorded in the late 14th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger uses it.^[5][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the Colossus of Rhodes.^[8][7]
• 4th/5th century AD – The Historia Augusta has the adjective.^[6][7]
• end of the 9th century – Erchempert is Köbler's first medieval source.^[7]
• late 14th century – English colossus is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gigantic statue, a colossus.^[2][1]
2. Colossus, the statue of the sun god at Rhodes.^[2][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) An amphitheatre.^[9][7]

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) colossal.^[6][10]

Related words

• English colossus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.