euripus

Forms

eurīpus m (genitive eurīpī); second declension^[1] The Greek nominative eurīpos is also used.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εὔριπος (eúripos, “strait, channel”),^[2][4][1] the name of the strait between Boeotia and Euboea.^[1][5] The Greek word is a compound of εὖ (eû, “well”) and ῥιπή (rhipḗ, “rush, swing”);^[6][5] Etymonline thinks the name was apparently euphemistic, since the strait was known for its violent, changeable currents.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it from Cicero on.^[7] He uses it both for a sea strait, comparing the shifting moods of elections to a channel with many currents (Pro Murena 35), and for the artificial water channels that some people called “Niles” and “Euripi” (De legibus 2.2).^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a narrow channel of the sea, above all the Euripus of Chalcis between Boeotia and Euboea, which Cicero calls Chalcidicus eurīpus;^[2][7] Pliny the Elder also uses it of the strait at Tauromenium and of the Thracian Bosporus.^[2][7] From this it came to mean an inland, usually artificial channel or canal: ornamental waterways in villas and gardens, the canal through the Campus Martius that Ovid mentions, and the water-filled trench that Caesar had dug round the arena of the Circus Maximus, according to Pliny the Elder and Suetonius.^[2][8]

In British Medieval Latin it also meant a violent current, used figuratively too, and a fishpond.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a sea strait and for ornamental water channels.^[2][7][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid names the eurīpī of the Campus Martius.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder reports that Caesar surrounded the arena of the Circus with eurīpī.^[2][6]
• c. 720 – A letter in the correspondence of Boniface uses it for the violent current of the sea.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow channel of the sea, a strait, especially the Euripus between Boeotia and Euboea.^[2][3]
2. An inland, usually artificial channel or canal; in particular the water-filled trench between the arena and the seats of the Circus Maximus.^[2][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A violent current; also a fishpond.^[9]

Related words

• English euripus

Usage notes

With a capital, Eurīpus is the proper name of the strait at Chalcis.^[3][1]

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 k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c 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