Etymologically
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furnus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈfʊr.nʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfur.nus][1]

Forms

furnus m (genitive furnī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from earlier fornus, inherited from Proto-Italic *χworno-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰr̥-no- (“heat, oven”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- (“to be hot”).[2][1] Cognate with Old Irish gorn (“fire”), Sanskrit घृण (ghṛṇá, “heat, glow”) and Russian горн (gorn, “blacksmith's hearth”).[2][3][4] The raising of /or/ to /ur/ before a consonant was going on in part of Roman speech, perhaps under dialect influence, since it is regular in Sabellic.[2] It is related to fornāx “furnace” and formus “warm”.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates furnus from Plautus, who also has fornus, as Varro does.[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant an oven, as Plautus' joke about being put in a hot oven and roasted like a loaf, and a bakehouse, as in Horace and Juvenal.[3][6] Seneca and Pliny the Elder also use it.[7] Lewis and Short give camīnus and clībanus as synonyms.[6]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a stove.[8] It survives in Italian forno, French four and Spanish horno.[1] English furnace comes from fornāx through Old French, recorded in the early 13th century.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an oven.[3][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a bakehouse.[3][5]
  • early 13th century – English furnace is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An oven.[3]
  2. A bakehouse.[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A stove.[8]

Word family

  • furnārius
  • fornax
  • fornix
  • formus
  • English furnace

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com