diluvium

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [diːˈɫʊ.wi.ũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [diˈluː.vi.um]^[1]

Forms

dīluvium n (genitive dīluviī or dīluvī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dīluō (“to wash away”) + -ium.^[2][1][3] Dīluō is from dis- and the stem of lavō “to wash”, which de Vaan says is contained in the compounds in -luere, lavō is from Proto-Indo-European *louh₃- (“to wash”).^[1][4] A related form is dīluviēs.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Virgil (70–19 BC).^[6] Virgil uses it of a flood and figuratively of a catastrophe.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant a flood or inundation.^[2] Varro dates events from the time of the flood of Deucalion, and Pliny the Younger writes of frequent floods.^[8] Figuratively it meant destruction or devastation, as in Virgil.^[7]

In Christian Latin it was the universal flood, Noah's flood.^[7][9] Isidore says it is named because it destroys (deleat) all that it floods.^[10] English deluge came from it through Old French in the late 14th century, and geologists borrowed diluvium in 1819.^[11]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro speaks of the time of Deucalion's flood.^[8][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a flood and of devastation.^[7][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in his Natural Questions.^[7][6]
• late 14th century – English deluge is recorded.^[11]
• 1819 – English diluvium is borrowed in geology.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flood, inundation.^[2][1]
2. (figurative) Destruction, cataclysm.^[7]
3. (Christian Latin) The Flood, the deluge.^[7][9]

Related words

• diluo
• English deluge
• English diluvium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com