Etymologically
Log in

eluvies

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

ēluviēs f (genitive ēluviēī); fifth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ēluō (“to wash out”) + -iēs.[2][1] The TLL compares ēluviō, of the same meaning.[3] De Vaan lists the verbs in ⟨-luere⟩ under lavō (“to wash”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *lowa- and Proto-Indo-European *(le-)louh₃- (“to wash”).[4] Cognate with Umbrian vutu, Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “I wash”) and Old Norse lauðr (“lye, foam”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it first in Lucilius,[5][3] who has eluviem facere per ventrem, of a purging of the bowels.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is a washing out of filth: Pliny the Elder writes of towns hollowed out by sewers ad eluviem, and Apuleius of scrubbing off an enormous crust of dirt.[2][7] It then means an overflowing or inundation: Ovid has eluvie mons est deductus in aequor, “by a flood the mountain was carried down into the sea”, and Tacitus uses it of the overflow of the sea.[2][8] Cicero calls a ruinous law illa labes atque eluvies civitatis, “that ruin and deluge of the state”.[2][8] Concretely it is, in Curtius, a ravine cut by torrents, and in Juvenal probably floodwater, though Georges reports that commentators take it there as the sewage of drains or as marsh water.[2][6] Palladius uses it of bath water, Grattius of urine and Aurelius Victor's epitome of a flux of the bowels.[6] Medieval British writers and glossaries use it for washing, washing water, scourings and dysentery.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of evacuating the bowels.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively of a law that ruins the state.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a flood.[2][5]
  • 1st century AD – Curtius uses it of ravines cut by water.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A washing away of filth; scourings; evacuation of the bowels.[2][8]
  2. Overflowing, inundation; figuratively, ruin.[2][8]
  3. Floodwater; a ravine formed by rushing water.[2][6]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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 d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press