dirus

Forms

dīrus (feminine dīra, neuter dīrum, comparative dīrior, superlative dīrissimus, adverb dīrē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The comparative is rare, Propertius and Seneca have magis dīrus.^[2]

Etymology

It was a religious term.^[3][4] It is usually reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *dwei-ro- (“fearful”) (or *dweis-o- (“hated”)), cognate with Sanskrit द्विष् (dvíṣ-, “hatred, enemy”) and Ancient Greek δείδω (deídō, “to fear”).^[3][2][1] Since ⟨*dw-⟩ normally gives Latin ⟨b-⟩, Ernout–Meillet and Pokorny took it as a dialect word, supported by a note in Servius that the Sabines and Umbrians call bad things ⟨dīra⟩; de Vaan accepts this with caution.^[3][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler first records it in Accius,^[6] and de Vaan in Cicero,^[3] whose laws say that whatever an augur declares dīra shall be void.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dīrus is first used of omens, “ill-boding, dire” (Cicero), and the feminine plural dīrae are bad omens or curses.^[2][3] In general it is “dreadful, frightful”, of places and diseases (Horace: dīrus hydrōps), of persons and monsters (Horace: Hannibalem dīrum; the Furies, Dīrae), of looks, acts and passions (Lucretius: dīra libīdō, Virgil: quae lūcis miserīs tam dīra cupīdō?, “why do the wretched long so fiercely for the light?”).^[2][7][3]

Church Latin glosses it “fearful, dreadful, horrible, cruel”.^[8] English dire comes from it in the 1560s.^[4]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it.^[6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of augural omens.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: the Furies, Dīrae.^[2][3][6]
• 1560s – English dire.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Ill-omened, boding ill, dire.^[2][1]
2. dreadful, frightful, awful.^[2][7][1][8]
3. Cruel, detestable.^[2][1][8]

Noun

1. (feminine plural) Bad omens, curses, Dīrae, the Furies.^[2][3]

Word family

• dīritās
• praedīrus
• dīrē

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson