Etymologically
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funus

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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

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