Etymologically
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eurus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɛu̯.rʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛːu̯.rus][1]

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
  • 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