corniger

Forms

corniger (feminine cornigera, neuter cornigerum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of cornū (“horn”) and -ger (“bearing”), from gerō (“to carry”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces cornū to Proto-Italic *kornu- (“horn”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrn-o- (“horn”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[4] who uses it of stags and of the horned mothers of kids; the TLL finds it from Cicero and Lucretius on,^[3][5] and a verse of Cicero's uses it of the Bull.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is a poetic word for having horns or antlers, used of stags, heifers and the constellation of the Bull.^[5][2] Ovid calls Jupiter Ammon horned.^[5][2] As a noun it is a horned animal, as Seneca's horned beast of the sea, a bull.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of stags and goats.^[5][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the Bull.^[5][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of Jupiter Ammon.^[5][2]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a bull from the sea.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having horns or antlers, horned;^[2][5][1] Iuppiter corniger, Ammon.^[2]

Noun

1. A horned animal.^[2]

Word family

• bicorniger
• tricorniger

Related words

• cornū
• cornūtus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de