Etymologically
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eiulatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɛj.jʊˈɫaː.tʊs], [ɛj.jʊˈɫaː.tuːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [e.juˈlaː.tus], [e.juˈlaː.tus][1]

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]

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