Etymologically
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fucus

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Two nouns are spelled fūcus: one, borrowed from Greek, is a seaweed and the dye made from it; the other is a drone.[1][2]

fucus1 dye

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfuː.kʊs][2]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfuː.kus][2]

Forms

fūcus m (genitive fūcī); second declension[2]

Etymology

The dye is borrowed from Ancient Greek φῦκος (phûkos, “seaweed, orchil”).[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[4] who uses it of women who hide the faults of their bodies with rouge, and of pretence.[1]

Semantic evolution

It is first a seaweed, orchil, from which an inferior red dye was made: Pliny the Elder describes it, and Quintilian speaks of wool dyed with it short of purple.[1][3] It is then any dye: Catullus has a couch covered with purple dyed rose-red.[1] As a cosmetic it is rouge, and transferred it is colouring, as Lucretius' bodies smeared with no colour.[1] Virgil uses it of bee glue.[1] Figuratively it is pretence or sham, and ⟨fūcum facere⟩ in Terence is to play a trick on someone.[1] Cicero applies it to the artificial embellishment of style, in a style free of childish paint and colour.[1] Church Latin glosses it red, purple, rouge, deceit.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of rouge and of pretence.[1][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence, to play a trick.[1][4]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of colouring.[1][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of embellished style.[1][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of bee glue.[1][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A seaweed, orchil.[1][3][2]
  2. A dye, especially red or purple; rouge; colouring.[1][3][2][5]
  3. Bee glue, propolis.[1][2]
  4. Pretence, disguise, sham;[1][2][5] fūcum facere, to play a trick.[1]
  5. Artificial embellishment of style.[1][2]

Word family

  • fūcō
  • fūcōsus

fucus2 drone

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfuː.kʊs][2]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfuː.kus][2]

Forms

fūcus m (genitive fūcī); second declension[2]

Etymology

The drone is perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoi-ko-, if from ⟨*foiko-⟩, and so cognate with the Celtic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic words for “bee”, such as Old Irish bech (“bee”), Lithuanian bìtė (“bee”) and Old English bēo (“bee”); but that ablaut grade is found nowhere else.[6] Walde and Hofmann preferred a link with Germanic words for “hornet, gadfly”, such as bēaw (“gadfly”), which the OLD also compares.[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.[6][4]

Semantic evolution

It is the drone, the male bee: Varro, Virgil and Columella use it.[3] Wiktionary notes that Contemporary Latin uses it, after English drone, for an unmanned aircraft.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[6][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of drones.[3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of drones.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A drone, a male bee.[1][3][2]
  2. (Contemporary Latin) An unmanned aircraft, drone.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill