Etymologically
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dorsum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈdɔr.sũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈdɔr.sum][1]

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

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