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
- A pole, especially a boat-pole.[2][3][1]
- A long spear, lance, pike.[2][3][1]
- (Medieval Latin) A lance with a pennant; a banner.[6]
Word family
- contārius
- contatus
- contiger
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill