cordatus

Forms

cordātus (feminine cordāta, neuter cordātum, adverb cordātē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin cor (“heart”) + -ātus.^[2][3][1] The TLL compares recordor (“to call to mind”).^[3] Cor goes back to Proto-Italic *kord and Proto-Indo-European *ḱērd (“heart”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a line of Ennius' Annals, quoted by Cicero: egregie cordatus homo, catus Aelius Sextus (“a remarkably wise man, shrewd Aelius Sextus”), with the sense “sensible, judicious”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as mostly ante- and post-classical;^[5] Cicero has it in quoting Ennius, and Seneca uses it.^[5] Lactantius has the comparative cordatior, and the Vulgate the phrase viri cordati in Job.^[5]

Medieval Latin also used it for “brave”,^[6] and New Latin gave it the botanical sense “heart-shaped”.^[1] Spanish cuerdo “sane” and Galician cordo continue it.^[1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius calls Aelius Sextus egregie cordatus.^[3][5][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes the line.^[5][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it.^[5][7]
• c. 250–317 AD – Lactantius has the comparative cordatior.^[5][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Job.^[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Sensible, prudent, wise.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) Brave.^[6][1]
3. (New Latin, botany) Heart-shaped, cordate.^[1]

Word family

• obcordātus
• sēmicordātus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de