eiulatus

Forms

eiulātus m (genitive eiulātūs); fourth declension^[1] It is often written hēiulātus in the manuscripts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēiulō (“to wail”) + -tus, an action noun.^[2][3][1] The verb is formed from the interjection ei (“oh!”),^[2][3][1] apparently on the model of iūbilō “to shout”, according to the TLL and the OLD.^[3][2] Lewis and Short derive it from the exclamations hei and heu.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Accius,^[5] in a tragedy where the roof of Philoctetes resounds with his wailing, complaining and groaning (eiulatu, questu, gemitu).^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is loud wailing or lamentation.^[2][6] Cicero, in the Tusculan Disputations, allows a man to groan now and then but does not allow wailing even to a woman.^[3][4] It is found in Velleius Paterculus, Curtius, Tacitus and Gellius, often beside gemitus,^[3][4] and the grammarian Charisius lists it as a synonym of gemitus and ululātus.^[3] The Vulgate uses it in Genesis and Esther.^[3][4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means lamentation or a cry.^[6]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of Philoctetes' wailing.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts it with groaning.^[3][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus speaks of womanish wailing.^[3][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Genesis and Esther.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wailing, lamentation, shrieking.^[2][4][6]

Related words

• gemitus
• ululātus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson