ferreus

Forms

ferreus (feminine ferrea, neuter ferreum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ferrum (“iron”) + -eus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan takes ⟨ferrum⟩ as a loanword from an unidentified source, possibly a Phoenician dialect, comparing the Phoenician and Syriac words for “iron”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Ennius as its first author, whose Annals have fit ferreus imber, “a shower of iron falls”, of weapons;^[5][2] Plautus has iron nails.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It is made of iron, and in poetry of weapons;^[2] manus ferrea and lupus ferreus are grappling irons.^[2] It is of the colour or hardness of iron, and saecula ferrea or aetās ferrea is the Iron Age, as in Tibullus.^[2] Of buildings it is iron-barred, and of cavalry ironclad (Sallust).^[2] By transfer it is hard-hearted (Cicero: I am not so iron as not to be moved by a brother's grief), cruel, untiring, as Virgil's voice of iron, inflexible, of fate, and shameless, as Cicero's “iron face” of Piso.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “made of iron, iron”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of iron nails.^[2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a shower of weapons.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a hard heart and a brazen face.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of an untiring voice.^[2][5]
• c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus of the Iron Age.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of iron;^[2][1][6] (poetic) consisting of weapons.^[2][1][6]
2. Of iron (in colour or hardness); of the Iron Age.^[2][1]
3. Iron-barred; ironclad.^[2]
4. Hard-hearted, cruel; untiring; inexorable; brazen.^[2][1]

Related words

• ferrāmentārius
• ferrāmentum
• ferrāria
• ferrārius
• ferrātus
• ferrūgināns
• ferrūgineus
• ferrūgo
• ferrum
• ferrūmen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson