fatifer

Forms

fātifer (feminine fātifera, neuter fātiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fātum (“fate”) + -fer (“bearing”).^[2][3][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil uses it in the Aeneid of a sword and of a bow: sonat ūnā fātifer arcus, “at the same moment the deadly bow twangs”.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

A poetic word,^[5] it meant bringing fate or death, deadly.^[2] After Virgil, Ovid uses it of iron and of Mars, and Silius Italicus of a right hand.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil applies it to a sword and a bow.^[3][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the Amores and the Metamorphoses.^[3][5][4]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bringing fate or death, deadly, death-dealing.^[2][5]

Usage notes

Servius explains it with lētifer, which one manuscript reads for it in the Aeneid, and the glossaries with mortifer.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press