er

Forms

ēr m (genitive ēris); third declension^[1] Plautus' manuscripts have irim and Nemesianus has erem;^[2][3] de Vaan takes irim for a copying error for erim.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *χēr-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰēr- (“hedgehog”).^[2] The derivative ērīcius suggests that the stem was originally /ēr(-i)-/, which can be connected with the Greek word if Latin once had ⟨*hēr⟩; this may be a PIE root noun to a root meaning “to be excited, be bristly”, also seen in horior.^[2]

Cognate with Ancient Greek χήρ (khḗr, “hedgehog”) (only in Hesychius), χοῖρος (khoîros, “porcupine”) and Albanian derr (“pig, swine”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Captivi (184): modo uenare leporem, nunc irim tenes, “a moment ago you were hunting a hare, now you are holding a hedgehog”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare: after Plautus the TLL and Lewis & Short cite it from Nemesianus' poem on hunting, of the “spiny body” of the animal.^[3][4] Beside it there were its derivative ērīcius, from Varro on, and erinaceus.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a hedgehog.^[2][3][5]
• second half of the 3rd century AD – Nemesianus writes of the hedgehog's spiny body.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hedgehog.^[2][4][3]

Related words

• hirsutus
• horior
• horreō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de