Etymologically
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epos

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɛ.pɔs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.pos][1]

Forms

epos n sg (indeclinable, no genitive)[1] It occurs only in the nominative and accusative singular.[2][3][4] A plural epē is a conjecture of Lucian Müller in Propertius.[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔπος (épos, “word, speech, tale”),[6][2][7] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wékʷos, from *wekʷ- (“to speak”).[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Horace,[8] who writes in the Satires that Varius composes vigorous epic (forte epos acer … Varius ducit).[4][2]

Semantic evolution

It always kept the sense of epic poetry or an epic poem.[6][2] Ovid's line that noble epic owes as much to Virgil as elegy owes to him has epos only by a conjecture of Muretus, for the manuscripts' opus.[4] Martial says he was writing an epic,[4][2] and Suetonius, defining the word, says that Ennius was the first to write a worthy epic in Latin.[4]

The grammarians also used it for the hexameter, the verse of epic.[4] Late poets such as Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris still use it.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the epic of Varius.[4][2][8]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial writes scribebamus epos (“I was writing an epic”).[4][2]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius defines the word and names Ennius as the first Latin epic poet.[4]
  • c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it in his poems on the professors.[2][5]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris uses it in his letters and poems.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Epic poetry; an epic, a heroic poem.[6][2][4]
  2. (grammar) The hexameter, the heroic verse.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de