fovea

Forms

fovea f (genitive foveae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] De Vaan rejects the comparison with Ancient Greek χειά (kheiá, “serpent's den”) and the Hesychian χειή (kheiḗ), and finds it uncertain whether favissae (“underground vaults”) belongs with it, since the origin of both is unknown.^[2] The TLL suggests that it may come from fodiō (“to dig”), with its ending taken from cavea (“hollow, enclosure”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it from Plautus,^[2][5] who uses it of a trap: ita decipiemus fovea leonem Lycum, “so we shall catch Lycus the lion in a pit”, and paene in foveam decidi, “I nearly fell into the trap”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Its general sense is a pit: Lucretius has moisture flowing into a pit, and Virgil men learning to cover the dead with earth and hide them in pits.^[3][6] In particular it is a pit with a hidden mouth for catching game, a pitfall,^[3] as in Cicero's beast that has fallen into a pit, and in Caesar's wild oxen caught in pits;^[3][8] figuratively it is a snare or trap, as in Plautus and Lactantius.^[6][8] Tertullian uses it of the womb and of a gap in a text.^[8][7] Church writers use it for a den, lair or pitfall,^[9] and in medieval Latin it also meant a buried hoard and an ore-pit.^[10] English took it over as fovea in 1849 for a small pit or depression in a surface.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a trap.^[6][7][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of a pit in the ground.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a beast fallen into a pitfall.^[3][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian, of the womb.^[8][5]
• 1849 – Borrowed into English as fovea.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pit, hole in the ground.^[3][6][1]
2. A pitfall for catching game.^[3][6][1]
3. (figurative) A snare, trap.^[6][8][1]
4. (Late Latin) The womb; a gap in a text.^[8][7]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A den, lair.^[9][10]
6. (Medieval Latin) A buried hoard; an ore-pit.^[10]

Word family

• foveālis

Related words

• favissae
• English fovea

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes cavities such as specus and caverna from pits opening downward into the earth, among which he counts scrobs, fovea and favissa.^[12] As a place name Fovea was Foggia in Apulia.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper