fulgur

Forms

fulgur n (genitive fulguris); third declension^[1] Festus gives a nominative fulgus, and Lucretius has the oblique stem fulger-.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *folg-os- (“brightness”), from the root of fulgeō (“to flash, shine”).^[3][1] De Vaan explains the zero grade *bʰl̥g-os- as showing that the noun was made from the verb at an early stage, and traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥g-e/o- (“to shine”), comparing Ancient Greek φλέγω (phlégō, “to burn”) and Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”).^[3] The regular outcome would have been a nominative fulgus with an oblique stem fulger-, both of which are attested.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest examples are in Lucretius, of the particles that make the flames of lightning flicker.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a flash of lightning, and also lightning as what strikes: Horace has lightning striking the mountain tops, and the phrase condere fulgur was to bury ritually the traces of a lightning strike.^[2] Vitruvius records Jupiter Fulgur as a title of the god.^[2] Seneca uses it of a kind of meteor, and poets of any flash or gleam of light.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of flashes of lightning.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of lightning striking mountain tops.^[2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger of a kind of meteor.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flash of lightning.^[2][5][1]
2. Lightning that strikes, a thunderbolt; condere fulgur, to bury the traces of a lightning strike.^[2][1]
3. A kind of meteor.^[2]
4. (poetic) A flash of light, gleam; brightness.^[2][1]

Word family

• fulgurālis
• fulgureus
• fulguriō
• fulgurō
• fulgurātiō

Related words

• fulgeō
• fulgetrum
• fulgor
• fulmen

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from fulgurātiō and fulmen: fulgur is a single, momentary flash, fulgurātiō continued lightning, and fulmen the bolt that strikes the earth.^[6]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper