coruscus

Forms

coruscus (feminine corusca, neuter coruscum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Later texts also spell it corruscus, and the Itala has scoruscus.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][4] Walde and Hofmann connected it with *(s)ker- "to jump", as in Ancient Greek σκαίρω (skaírō, “to skip, dance”), which the OLD also compares; de Vaan calls this a long shot.^[3][5][4] He suggests instead a possible link with queror (“to lament”), if coru- goes back to *kweru-, but finds the details and the suffix unclear.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus, where a frightened character jokes that he is all of a tremble as he speaks.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It means moving rapidly, trembling or quivering, as Virgil's woods waving above a scene.^[5][6] It also means flashing or gleaming: Varro has a flashing shower falling from a high cloud.^[5] Lewis & Short call it poetic.^[6] From the Itala on it is used as a noun meaning lightning, which Church and Medieval Latin keep.^[4][7][8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of trembling with fear.^[6][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a flashing shower.^[5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of quivering woods.^[5][4]
• after 220 AD – the Itala uses it of lightning.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Moving rapidly, quivering, trembling, waving.^[5][6][1]
2. Flashing, glittering, gleaming.^[5][1]

Noun

1. (Late Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin) Lightning.^[7][8][4]

Word family

• coruscifer
• coruscō

Related words

• coruscāmen
• coruscātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill