cretaceus

Forms

crētāceus (feminine crētācea, neuter crētāceum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin crēta (“chalk”) + -āceus, the adjective suffix of resemblance.^[2][1][3] Etymonline likewise explains it as “chalk-like”, from crēta.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Elder has it in the Natural History, of the wheat of Pisa, which he calls whiter, heavier and chalk-like compared with the Campanian kind.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a rare word in Classical Latin, meaning “resembling chalk or pipeclay”.^[2][7] English took it over as cretaceous “chalky”, and later used it for the geological period named after the chalk beds of south-eastern England.^[4]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder calls the wheat of Pisa chalk-like.^[3][8]
• 1670s – Borrowed into English as cretaceous, “chalky”.^[4]
• 1851 – The English word is first used of the geological period.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Like chalk or pipeclay, chalky.^[2][7][5]

Related words

• English cretaceous

References

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