foris

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈfɔ.rɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfɔː.ris]^[1]

Forms

foris f (genitive foris); third declension^[1] It is mostly plural, forēs, for a folding door.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fwor-i-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuō̆r- (“door”), a root noun, perhaps used only in the plural or dual.^[2] The adverbs forās and forīs continue cases of a stem *forā-, “to the door” and “at the door”.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit द्वार् (dvā́r-, “door, gate”), Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra, “door”), Lithuanian dùrys (“door”), Old Church Slavonic двьрь (dvĭrĭ, “door”), Welsh dor (“door”) and English door.^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of a door creaking open.^[4][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was the door of a house or room, in the plural the two leaves of a folding door, and an entrance or opening, as of a beehive.^[4][3] Plautus often has foris crepuit “the door creaked”.^[5] Döderlein contrasts ostium, any door, and iānua, the house door.^[7]

In medieval Latin forēs was a door or gate, an entrance, a frontier, and a beginning.^[8][9] The adverb “outside” survives as Italian fuori and French hors, and Medieval Latin forms from it gave English foreign and probably forest.^[1][10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a creaking door.^[4][6]
• c. 1300 – English foreign is recorded, from Medieval Latin forāneus, from forīs.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A door; in the plural, a folding door, double doors.^[4][5]
2. An entrance, opening.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A border; a beginning.^[8]

Word family

• forīnsecus
• biforis
• biforus
• foricula
• quadriforis
• multiforis
• multiforus
• septiforis

Related words

• forum
• forās
• English foreign
• English forest

Usage notes

The adverb forīs meant “out of doors, outside, abroad”, and forās “to the outside”.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com