cornicen

Forms

cornicen m (genitive cornicinis); third declension^[1] The grammarians also give the spelling cornūcen.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin cornū (“horn”) + -cen (“player”), formed like tībīcen and tubicen.^[4][5][1] The second element comes from canō (“to sing, play”),^[6][3][7] and ancient grammarians already explained the word as “one who plays on the horn”.^[3]

The noun cornū goes back to Proto-Italic *kornu- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrn-o- (“horn”),^[6] and the verb to Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro and Cicero,^[6][8] meaning a player of the horn, a trumpeter or bugler.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was mainly the army's horn-blower: Cicero has it in the De re publica, and Livy, Sallust and Juvenal use it too.^[5][2][9] Georges notes that it could also mean a player of the Phrygian pipe.^[2] Festus explains that the aēneātōrēs were called cornicinēs, since they played the horn.^[3] As Cornicen it was also a surname in the gens Oppia.^[5][2]

Medieval writers kept the sense of a horn-blower, especially one who gives signals in battle.^[10][11] Old English glosses render it hornbora and hornblāwere.^[11]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[6][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the De re publica.^[2][9][8]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of horn-blowers.^[5][8]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it in his satires.^[5][8]
• 10th century – An Old English glossary renders it hornbora.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A horn-blower, trumpeter or bugler, especially in the army.^[4][5][10]
2. A player of the Phrygian pipe.^[2]

Usage notes

The proper name Cornicen was a surname in the gens Oppia, borne by a decemvir of 451 BC.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press