cora

Forms

cora f (genitive corae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē, “girl; pupil of the eye”).^[2][3][1][4] The Greek word goes back to Proto-Hellenic *kórwā and, according to Wiktionary and Köbler, to Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to grow”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The veterinary text of Chiron (4th century AD)^[4] explains pupilla as the part “called chore”, in the Greek spelling.^[3] Ausonius (c. 310–394 AD) then uses cora in a letter, beside pupilla.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a learned Greek term for the pupil of the eye;^[3] Vegetius gives it as the Greek name in his book on the diseases of animals.^[3] The TLL lists bicoris among its derivatives.^[3]

Timeline

• 4th century AD – Chiron says the pupil is called chore.^[3][4]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses cora in a letter.^[3][2][4]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius gives it as the Greek term.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The pupil of the eye.^[2][3][5][1]

Usage notes

As a proper name, Cora is an old town of Latium, now Cori, mentioned by Livy and Virgil,^[2][5] and a name of Proserpina, from Greek Κόρη (Kórē).^[2][3]

Medieval cora (also kora, chora) “town law, municipal statute; the area under that law” is unrelated: Niermeyer derives it from a Germanic word for “what is chosen”,^[6] and Köbler records it in a charter of 1252.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill