Etymology and origin of the Latin word coorior
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
- Ultimate origin
- Proto-Indo-European (*h₃er-)
Etymology tree
Forms
coorior (present infinitive coorīrī, perfect active coortus sum); fourth conjugation, deponent[1] The poem Aetna has cōritur, and Varro and Tacitus have forms such as coorerer.[2]
Etymology
It is from Latin con- + orior (“to rise”).[2][1][3] The verb orior goes back to Proto-Italic *orior and Proto-Indo-European *h₃r-i- (“to rise”).[4] Cognate with Hittite arai- (“to rise, lift”).[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Its first example in the OLD is Plautus' “when he touches the bad cheeks, pains arise”.[2]
Semantic evolution
It means to spring forth or originate, as Lucretius' bodies coming from iron, and of living things to come into being.[2] Usually of unwelcome things it is to break out or arise, as storms, wars or quarrels, and as a military term to spring to the attack, as Livy's Carthaginians who rose up on all sides at a signal.[2][5] Lewis & Short note that it is most frequent in Lucretius and the historians, especially Livy, and rare in Cicero; the Thesaurus notes that it is nearly always used in the perfect.[5][3]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of pains arising.[2][6]
- 96–55 BC – Lucretius of things coming into being.[2][6]
- 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of springing to the attack.[2][6]
Meanings
Verb
- To spring forth, originate; to be born.[2][1]
- To break out, arise.[2][5][1]
- (military) To spring to the attack.[2][1]
Word family
- coortus
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry
“Coorior.” Etymologically, 19 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/coorior. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.
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