corallium

Forms

corallium n (genitive coralliī or corallī); second declension^[1] The older spelling, preferred by the poets and the best manuscripts, is cūralium (also curallium);^[2][3][4] corallum is found in Avienus and Sidonius,^[2][3] and medieval texts also have coraglium and curallum.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion, “coral”), also κουράλιον (kourálion).^[4][3][6] The further origin is unknown;^[6] Etymonline and Wiktionary consider a Semitic source probable.^[7][1] Pliny the Elder reports an explanation of the form ⟨curalium⟩ from the fact that it is cut with a sharp iron, from κουρά (kourá, “cutting”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius is its first author,^[6][3] comparing the colours of a dove's plumage to red coral mixed with green emeralds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It named the red coral of the Mediterranean.^[3] Ovid says that coral hardens as soon as it touches the air: sic et curalium, quo primum contigit auras tempore, durescit (“so too coral hardens the moment it touches the air”, Metamorphoses 15.416).^[2] Grattius mentions coral in connection with Melite, and Pliny the Elder treats it at length among remedies.^[2]

Medieval Latin kept the word for coral,^[5] and English took it from Old French around 1300.^[7] It survives in Italian corallo.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius compares a dove's colours to coral.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid says that coral hardens in the air.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder discusses coral and its medicinal uses.^[2][6]
• c. 1300 – English borrows coral from Old French.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coral, especially red coral.^[4][3][1]

Word family

• corallinus

Related words

• English coral

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com