februus

Forms

februus (feminine februa, neuter februum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3] De Vaan takes februum “a means of purification” to be this adjective used as a noun, and the adjective in turn to presuppose an older ⟨*febro-⟩ “purification”.^[3] He reconstructs it as Proto-Italic *f(w)esro- or *feχʷro-: the first would fit Walde and Hofmann's Proto-Indo-European *dʰues-ro- (“the smoking”), with a shift of meaning from smoking to purifying, but he cannot exclude the root of febris “fever”, from *dʰegʷʰ-ro- (“the burning”).^[3] Varro calls ⟨februm⟩ a Sabine word for a means of purification.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective it is rare: Martianus Capella calls Juno Februa, the purifier.^[1][2] The earliest dated source for the word is Servius, who names Februus as an underworld god in his commentary on the Georgics.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Used as a name, Februus was an Etruscan god of the underworld to whom sacrifice was made in mid-February, as Macrobius reports;^[2][5] and Isidore of Seville, explaining the month's name, identifies him with Pluto and rejects a derivation from febris.^[6] The noun februum and the month name Februārius belong to the same family.^[3]

In late and medieval verse februus served as another name for the month of February, and as an adjective “of February”.^[1][7] Wandalbert and Walahfrid Strabo use it so in their calendar poems,^[7] and British writers have it both for the month and, following Isidore, for Pluto.^[8] In Neo-Latin, Celtis still writes Februae … Calendae for the first of February.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 400 AD – Servius names Februus as an underworld god.^[5][10]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius describes the sacrifices to Februus.^[5][2][10]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella calls Juno Februa.^[1][2][10]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville equates Februus with Pluto.^[6][10]
• second quarter of the 9th century – Walahfrid Strabo uses it for the month of February.^[7][10]
• 848 – Wandalbert uses it as an adjective, “of February”.^[7][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Purifying, cleansing (in the epithet Iuno Februa).^[2][1]
2. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) Of February.^[1][7]

Proper noun

1. (as Februus) An underworld god to whom sacrifice was made in February, identified with Dis or Pluto.^[5][2][6]
2. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) The month of February.^[1][7][8]

Word family

• februum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
2. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
5. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e f Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de
10. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de