efferatus

Forms

efferātus (feminine efferāta, neuter efferātum; comparative efferātior, superlative efferātissimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin efferō² (“to make wild, brutalize”): the perfect participle of that verb, used as an adjective.^[1][3][4] The verb is formed from ex- and ferus (“wild”),^[4] which goes back to Proto-Italic *χwero- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰueh₁ro-, from a word for a wild animal.^[5]

Georges also records the spelling ⟨ecferātus⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cicero,^[6] who asks in the De re publica how much more wretched it is in hominis figūrā animō esse efferātō, “to have a savage mind in a human form”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The TLL divides its uses into the bodily appearance, as in Livy of bodies made almost savage by filth and decay, and the nature and manners of beasts and men.^[7] Pliny the Elder says that the dog-headed apes are more savage by nature,^[7] and Cicero has the remark that some peoples are so brutalized that they have no notion of the gods.^[4][7] Livy uses it of the Gauls and of wilder customs, and Seneca has Hippolytus, a dweller of the woods, efferātus, castus, intāctus, rudis.^[7]

It also described passions and cruelty, “frenzied, raging”: Valerius Maximus speaks of savage cruelty, Seneca of the most violent emotions, and Ammianus of soldiers wild with joy.^[2][7] Petronius uses it of a wild look.^[4] Ecclesiastical Latin has “wild, raging”,^[8] and the word continues in Italian efferato.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of savage minds and peoples.^[7][6]
• 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it of bodies, peoples and customs.^[7][6]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses it of Hippolytus and of violent emotions.^[7][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of a wild expression.^[4][6]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of soldiers wild with joy.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Like a wild animal, savage, bestial; uncivilized.^[1][7]
2. (of appearance) Wild, unkempt.^[7]
3. (of feelings and actions) Frenzied, ferocious, raging.^[2][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson