Etymologically
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ferreus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɛr.re.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɛr.re.us][1]

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]
  • 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