Etymologically
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corallium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔˈral.li.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koˈral.li.um][1]

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

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