dorsum

Forms

dorsum n (genitive dorsī); second declension^[1] Plautus once has a masculine dorsus.^[2][3] A variant dossum, by assimilation, is found in Varro and the grammarian Velius Longus.^[2][3]

Etymology

De Vaan takes it to be a compound of dē (“away from”) and ⟨versus⟩ “turned towards”, as the Romans themselves thought: the grammarian Festus equated it with deorsum (“downwards”).^[3] From ⟨*dē-worsum⟩ “turned away” came ⟨deorsum⟩, and, with ⟨eo⟩ reduced to ⟨o⟩ before ⟨rs⟩ as in ⟨sorsum⟩ for seorsum, ⟨dorsum⟩ “turned away”, hence “back”; the spelling ⟨deorsum⟩ was then kept for the adverb and ⟨dorsum⟩ for the noun.^[3][1] The OLD instead compares Irish druim (“back, ridge”) and Welsh trum (“ridge”);^[2] Köbler calls the origin uncertain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] whose Epidicus has a slave fearing that rods will strip his back.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the back of the body, of men and of animals;^[2][5] Lewis and Short note that in classical prose it is used only of beasts of burden, men's backs being poetic or later.^[2][5] Döderlein distinguishes it from tergum: ⟨dorsum⟩ is the back seen horizontally, as an animal's back opposite its belly, ⟨tergum⟩ the back seen upright.^[6] From the shape it came to mean any ridge or hump: Virgil has the double-backed share-beam of a plough and the ridge of a wood, and it is used of hill ridges and reefs.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “back”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a slave's back.^[2][3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of an animal's back.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a plough's ridge and of wooded ridges.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The back of a person or animal.^[2][5][1][7]
2. A ridge or hump; a hill ridge, a reef.^[2][1]

Word family

• dorsālis
• dorsō
• dorsuālis

Related words

• vertō
• deorsum
• English dorsal

Usage notes

Wiktionary also records dorsum as an adverb, a form of deorsum “down”, which inscriptions confirm.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson