fossor

Forms

fossor m (genitive fossōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fodiō (“to dig”) + -tor, formed on the participle stem ⟨foss-⟩.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces fodiō to Proto-Italic *foþ-i- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰodʰ-i- (“to poke, dig”).^[4] Cognate with Hittite padda-i (“to dig”), Lithuanian bèsti (“to stick, drive in, dig”) and Latvian best (“to dig, bury”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL record it first in Catullus,^[5][3] who says that the elegant Suffenus, once he writes verse, seems a mere goatherd or ditcher, the fossor standing for clumsiness and lack of polish.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The plain sense is a man who digs the ground, a delver or ditcher in the fields and vineyards,^[2][6][7] as in Virgil's sturdy digger turning the acres.^[2][6] Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder use it of miners,^[2][6] and Statius of a sapper undermining walls.^[2][6] Like Catullus, Persius uses it as a byword for a coarse, uncultivated man.^[2][6][8]

In Late Latin, Christian inscriptions use it for a gravedigger,^[6][7] the sense it keeps in Ecclesiastical Latin.^[9] Ausonius has it as an obscene term.^[6][7][8] Medieval writers still used it for a labourer with the spade,^[10] and in British sources also for a gravedigger, a sapper and, once, the spade itself.^[11]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it as a type of the uncouth.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of miners gathering quicksilver.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a digger working the fields.^[2][6][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of a sapper.^[2][5]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it as an obscene term.^[6][8][5]
• 1258 – An account from Wellingborough uses it for a spade.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A digger, delver, ditcher.^[2][6]
2. (figurative) A clumsy, uncouth person; a boor.^[2][6]
3. A miner;^[2][6] (military) a sapper.^[2][6]
4. (Late Latin) A gravedigger.^[6][7][9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A peasant who tills with the spade.^[10]

Word family

• fossōrius

Related words

• fodicō
• fodīna
• fodiō
• fossa
• fossātum
• fossātus
• fossīcius
• fossilis
• fossiō
• fossō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ 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