ebriacus

Forms

ēbriācus (feminine ēbriāca, neuter ēbriācum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēbrius (“drunk”) + -ācus.^[2][1][3] The OLD and Lewis & Short compare merācus (“undiluted”) from merus (“pure”).^[2][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that adjective, which goes back to Proto-Italic *ēχwrio- and is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁egʷʰ- (“to drink”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nonius quotes a mime of Laberius, homo ebriacus somnō sānārī solet, “a drunk man is usually cured by sleep”;^[6][4] but one manuscript reads ebriātus, which Georges now prints, and Lewis & Short mark the reading as doubtful.^[7][4][6] The grammarian Charisius censures the form.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It belongs to Late Latin.^[8][1] An Old Latin version of the Bible has nōn avārī, nōn ebriācī in 1 Corinthians 6:10, where the Vulgate has ebriōsī;^[6][8] it occurs in the Pilgrimage of Egeria^[8][6] and in Sirach 19:1 in the Codex Amiatinus.^[6][7] The glossaries render it with μέθυσος (méthusos) and μεθυστής (methustḗs).^[9]

In Medieval Latin it could mean “made with wine”, of a plaster,^[10] and as a noun “drunkard”: the Carmina Centulensia speak of drunkards full of new wine,^[10][3] it appears as a byname in 1196,^[10] and in a Polish court record of 1495 a priest is called ebriācus.^[11] It is the source of Italian ubriaco and imbriaco, Occitan embriac and Spanish embriago.^[6][1][8]

Timeline

• 106–43 BC – A mime of Laberius may have it, though the reading is doubtful.^[6][3]
• after 220 AD – An Old Latin Bible has it in 1 Corinthians 6:10.^[6][3]
• c. 362 AD – Charisius censures the form.^[6][3]
• after 384 AD – The Pilgrimage of Egeria uses it.^[8][3]
• 2nd half of the 9th century – The Carmina Centulensia use it as a noun, “drunkard”.^[10][3]
• 1196 – It appears as a byname.^[10]
• 1495 – A Polish court record uses it as an insult to a priest.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Drunk, intoxicated.^{[2][7][12][8][1]}
2. (Medieval Latin) Made with wine.^[10]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A drunkard.^[10][3][11]

Related words

• ēbriōsus
• ēbrietās

Usage notes

Jeanneau records a Late Latin feminine noun ebriāca, darnel, a plant held to make people drunk;^[13] Wiktionary lists French ivraie among the descendants of the adjective.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c d e f g Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
12. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
13. ^ Jeanneau, Gérard; Woitrain, Jean-Paul; Hassid, Jean-Claude (2017), Dictionnaire latin-français, online ed., prima-elementa.fr