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echinus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word echinus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Borrowed from
Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (ἐχῖνος)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛˈkʰiː.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈkiː.nus][1]

Forms

echīnus m (genitive echīnī); second declension[1] The spellings echinnus and ecinus occur in manuscripts.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος (ekhînos, “hedgehog, sea urchin”).[2][1][4] Köbler connects the Greek word with the Indo-European word for “snake”, as a name of the snake-eater.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[4] who has echinos … captamus, “we catch sea urchins”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is above all the edible sea urchin, in Plautus, Afranius, Horace and Pliny the Elder;[2][6] Lewis & Short also give the land hedgehog.[6] Calpurnius Siculus uses it of the prickly husk of the chestnut.[2] Horace has it among cheap tableware, perhaps a salt cellar,[2] and Wiktionary gives a rinsing bowl, especially of copper.[1] In architecture Vitruvius uses it of the convex moulding below the abacus of a capital.[2] English echinus keeps the architectural and zoological senses.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of sea urchins.[2][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace, of an article of tableware.[2][4]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of the moulding of a capital.[2][4]
  • 2nd third of the 1st century AD – Calpurnius Siculus, of the husk of the chestnut.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sea urchin;[2][6][1] a hedgehog.[6][1]
  2. The prickly husk of a chestnut.[2][1]
  3. An article of tableware, perhaps a salt cellar;[2] a rinsing bowl.[1]
  4. (architecture) The convex moulding below the abacus of a capital.[2][1]

Word family

  • echinātus
  • echīnomētrae
  • ērināceus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Echinus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/echinus. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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