faux

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[1][2] The OLD marks it doubtful.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, who uses it of the throat, the pharynx.^[1][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was the upper part of the throat, and the throat as the passage of breath, the seat of the voice and the gullet; of beasts it meant the jaws, often figuratively, as when Cicero speaks of a city snatched from the jaws of war.^[3] Celsus used it of the outside of the throat, the neck.^[3]

From the throat it came to mean any narrow entrance or passage: the mouth of a harbour or river, as in Caesar, the entrance to a pass, the approach to a country, the porch of a building, a crater or cave mouth, the neck of a jar, a strait, an isthmus.^[3] English borrowed fauces “throat, gullet” in the 1540s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the throat.^[3][2]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the mouth of a harbour.^[3][2]
• 1540s – English fauces is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The upper throat, pharynx; the throat, gullet, (of beasts) the jaws.^[3]
2. The outside of the throat, neck.^[3]
3. A narrow entrance: the mouth of a harbour or river, the entrance of a pass, a porch, a crater.^[3]
4. A narrow passage: a strait, a defile, an isthmus.^[3]

Word family

• fōcāle
• fōcāneus
• praefōcō
• suffōcō

Related words

• English fauces

Usage notes

The word is normally plural, faucēs; the singular appears only in the ablative fauce, and Varro remarks on its absence.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
2. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com