cora
Pronunciation
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
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
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill