Etymologically
Log in

colossus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:12. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]

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.