eurus

Forms

eurus m (genitive eurī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εὖρος (eûros, “east or south-east wind”).^[2][3][1] Köbler connects the Greek word with Proto-Indo-European *h₁eus- (“to burn”).^[4] Seneca says that the Romans called it vulturnus, but that the Greek name has been granted citizenship and no longer enters Latin as a foreigner.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Vitruvius.^[4] The OLD's first example is a line of the poet Furius Antias on the breath of the east winds reddening the waves.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the east or south-east wind,^[2][3] in Vitruvius, Columella, Seneca, Pliny the Elder and Gellius, and in Horace and Virgil, who also use the plural.^[3] In poetry it stands for any wind, as in Virgil's “swifter than the Eurus”.^[2] Ovid sets it against the west wind as the east wind,^[3] and Mela uses it for the East itself.^[2] Church Latin has it as the east wind.^[6]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Furius Antias, of the east winds.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of the winds.^[3][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, as a typical wind.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace.^[3][4]
• 43/44 AD – Mela, of the East.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The east or south-east wind.^[2][3][1]
2. (poetic) A wind.^[2]
3. The East.^[2][1]

Word family

• eurīnus
• euroaquilō
• euroauster
• eurōus

Related words

• vulturnus
• zephyrus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson