favonius

Forms

favōnius m (genitive favōniī or favōnī); second declension^[1] The genitive is favōnī in hexameters and lyric verse;^[2] faonius is a late spelling in manuscripts and inscriptions.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][2] De Vaan's reconstruction is inherited from Proto-Italic *fawōn(-jo)-: if it is related to Faunus, it most likely continues an earlier noun ⟨*favō, -ōnis⟩ “one who favours”, an individualizing form of an n-stem adjective from Proto-Indo-European *bhh2u-n- (“favourable”), which also gave Umbrian fons (“merciful”) and Old Irish búan (“good, favourable”).^[3] The west wind, which stimulates vegetation, could be called favourable, and the Romans saw it as the herald of spring.^[3] Wiktionary connects it either with the root of faveō (“to favour”) or with that of foveō (“to warm, cherish”).^[1] De Vaan finds the link with the latter, supported by Walde and Hofmann, not compelling, since it cannot explain the /a/.^[3] The ancients derived it from that verb: Pliny the Elder reports that some called it the life-giving breath of the world, named from warming, and Isidore of Seville says it is named because it warms crops and flowers.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Plautus,^[3][4] where someone promises to be more serene quam ventus est favonius, “than the west wind is”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the west wind, which the Greeks called ζέφυρος (zéphuros), as Seneca and Pliny the Elder note.^[5][2][6] Its first blowing, about the middle of February by Georges' account, marked the beginning of spring: Cato tells farmers what to do when the favonius begins to blow, Cicero writes of a man who reckoned the start of spring not from the west wind, and Lucretius speaks of the life-giving breeze of the west wind.^[5][3][6] Hence it also means the west as a direction, as in Cato and Pliny, and the time when the west wind begins, as in Varro.^[5] Catullus and Horace use it in poetry; the plural appears in Horace and later writers.^[6][2] Pliny the Younger has a covered walk that lets in the west winds through open windows.^[5] Late writers sometimes use it of neighbouring westerly winds, as Vegetius, who equates it with the iapyx beside the zephyr; it survives in Italian and Spanish.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus compares serenity with the west wind.^[5][3][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato dates farm work from its first blowing.^[5][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the time when the west wind begins.^[5][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace has it in the plural.^[2][4]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name from warming.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The west wind, zephyr.^[5][7][6]
2. The west, as a direction.^[5]
3. The time when the west wind begins to blow, the beginning of spring.^[5]

Word family

• favōniālis
• favōniānus

Related words

• Faunus
• faveō

Usage notes

Lewis and Short, the OLD and Gaffiot print it with a capital, as a personified name.^[7][5][8] Gaffiot and Georges also record a glossary adjective favōnius, light and mild like the west wind.^[8][6] Favōnius is also a Roman family name.^[8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.