Etymologically
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cornucopia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔr.nuːˈkoː.pi.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kor.nuˈkɔː.pi.a][1]

Forms

cornūcōpia f (genitive cornūcōpiae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cornū (“horn”) + cōpia (“abundance, plenty”), the phrase ⟨cornū cōpiae⟩ “horn of plenty”, with the genitive of cōpia, written as one word.[2][3] Lewis and Short call the one-word spelling less correct, though frequent in Late Latin.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears, as two words, in Plautus, whose Pseudolus calls a letter that has just arrived a cornu copiae holding everything the speaker wants.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The horn of plenty was the horn of the goat Amalthea, set among the stars, which the Greeks called κέρας Ἀμαλθείας; it was the emblem of fruitfulness and abundance.[2] The OLD describes it as a magic horn that supplied whatever its owner wished for, and a hollowed horn of this kind was carried as the emblem of certain deities.[4] Pliny the Elder explains the Greek κέρας Ἀμαλθείας as meaning copiae cornu.[4]

The spelling as one word, cornūcōpiae and twice cornūcōpia in Ammianus Marcellinus, belongs to later Latin.[2][6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it remained the emblem of abundance,[7] and in British Medieval Latin it named the horn of plenty and also a book.[8] English borrowed it in the 1590s,[3] and Italian, Spanish and Portuguese also took it over.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses cornu copiae of a letter that brings all the speaker wants.[4][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder renders the Greek κέρας Ἀμαλθείας as cornu copiae.[4][5]
  • c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius uses the phrase.[4][5]
  • c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus writes cornūcōpia as one word.[2][6][5]
  • 1508 – An inventory of Canterbury College, Oxford, lists a book called Cornucopia.[8]
  • 1590s – English borrows it as cornucopia.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The horn of plenty, the horn of the goat Amalthea, an emblem of abundance.[2][4][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) The title of a book.[8]

Usage notes

Classical authors write cornu copiae as two words;[9][2] Gaffiot prefers that spelling to cornucopia.[9][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.