funus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈfuː.nʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfuː.nus]^[1]

Forms

fūnus n (genitive fūneris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fūnos, of uncertain origin.^[2][1] A gloss has a form fonus.^[2] If it stands for *foinos, the word could come from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeih₂- (“to be afraid”), “fear”, then “mourning”, which de Vaan finds hardly compelling.^[2] If fōnus is a rustic form of *founus, it could be *dʰe/ou-nes- “the passing away”, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“to pass away, die”), and Watkins compared Hittite tuhhušzi (“ends”), making it a closing ceremony.^[2][3] Older dictionaries linked fūmus “smoke”.^[4] The OLD and the TLL leave it unexplained.^[5][6] Isidore of Seville derived it from the burning ropes, fūnis, carried before the bier.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the Twelve Tables, which forbid wailing at a funeral.^[2][5] Köbler dates the Twelve Tables to about 450 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant funeral rites, a funeral, fūnus facere “to hold a funeral”, then a corpse, as Varro's houses full of the sick and of corpses, and death itself, as in Plautus.^[5] Figuratively it meant destruction, ruin, a rare but classical use.^[4] Döderlein distinguishes it, the carrying out of the corpse, from exsequiae, the procession of mourners, and pompa, the display.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables regulate mourning at a funeral.^[5][3]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of death.^[5][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of corpses.^[5][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville derives it from fūnis.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Funeral rites, a funeral.^[5]
2. A dead body, corpse.^[5]
3. Death, (poetic) ruin, destruction.^[5][4]

Word family

• fūnebris
• fūnerālis
• fūnerārius
• fūnereus
• fūnestus

Related words

• English funeral
• English funereal

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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper