Etymologically
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crabro

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkraː.broː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkraː.bro][1]

Forms

crābrō m (genitive crābrōnis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *krāsrōn-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrH-s-r-on- (“the one with antennae, hornet”).[2][3] De Vaan explains it from *ḱr-h₂-s- (“head”), whose derivative *ḱr-h₂-s-ró- (“what is on the head”) came to mean antennae or horns.[2]

Cognate with Old Prussian sirsilis, Old Lithuanian širšuõ, Latvian sir̂suonis, Serbo-Croatian sȑšljēnj, Old High German hornuz, German Hornisse, Dutch horzel and English hornet, all meaning “hornet”.[2]

Isidore of Seville derived the name from ⟨cabo⟩, that is caballus (“horse”), because hornets were thought to be born from horses.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,[2][6] who has the proverb irritabis crabrones, “you will stir up the hornets”.[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Virgil, Ovid and Pliny the Elder use it of the hornet;[8][7] the best manuscripts of Ovid have the spelling scrabo, and some of Servius scrabro.[4] In Medieval Latin it was used for the hornet or the wasp, and Old English glossaries render it with words for both.[10] It survives in Italian calabrone.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a proverb.[7][8][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Georgics.[8][9][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Metamorphoses.[8][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes it.[8][7][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains its name.[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hornet.[3][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A hornet or wasp.[10]

Usage notes

Irritare crabrones, “to stir up the hornets”, corresponds to English “to stir up a hornet's nest”.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b 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