contus

Forms

contus m (genitive contī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κοντός (kontós, “pole, pike”).^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary derives the Greek word from κεντέω (kentéō, “to sting, goad”), and Köbler cites Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- (“to prick”).^[1][4] Isidore of Seville took it as if from conus, a sharp roundness.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[4] and Lewis & Short think it perhaps not used before Augustus.^[3] Virgil uses it of boat poles and as a weapon.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a pole of any kind, especially one used on a boat or ship.^[2][3] Tacitus and Suetonius also use it of boat poles.^[3] It is also a long spear, lance or pike, as in Virgil, Grattius' huge Macedonian pikes, Valerius Flaccus' Sarmatian rider, and Tacitus, who says that on a wet day neither pikes nor swords were of use.^[2][3] Ammianus has the proverb that one is carried not by poles and tow-rope but under full sail.^[3] In Medieval Latin it is a lance with a pennant, or a banner.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of boat poles and of a pike.^[3][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of pikes useless on a wet day.^[2][4]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus' proverb of poles and sails.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pole, especially a boat-pole.^[2][3][1]
2. A long spear, lance, pike.^[2][3][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A lance with a pennant; a banner.^[6]

Word family

• contārius
• contatus
• contiger

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill