Etymologically
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furvus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfʊr.wʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfur.vus][1]

Forms

furvus (feminine furva, neuter furvum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Georges marks the first vowel long, fūrvus.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fuswo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰus-u̯o- (“dark, brown”).[3] De Vaan follows Rix, who posits this form with the suffix of other colour words such as flāvus, fulvus and helvus;[3] Wiktionary notes that the word is cited as evidence for a change of /sw/ to /rw/, although Clayton derives it from a form with an extra vowel.[1] The root may be Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes- (“to breathe, fume”), so that the word would first have meant a dusty, murky colour,[3][1] and Köbler places it with Pokorny's *dʰeu̯es- (“to whirl like dust”).[4]

Cognate with Old Irish donn (“dun, brown”), Middle Welsh dwnn (“dun, dusky”), Old English dox (“dark-haired, dusky”) and dosen (“dark-coloured”), and with English dusk.[3] The OLD and Lewis and Short compare fuscus.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro,[3][4] meaning “dark, dusky”.[5]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short describe it as poetic and post-Augustan in prose.[6] It is used of dark clouds in Lucretius[6][2] and above all of the underworld and what belongs to it: Ovid's dark caves of Acheron, Horace's furvae … Proserpinae and black victims offered to the gods below.[6][2] Juvenal speaks of a furva gens, a dark-skinned people.[6]

Figuratively a dies furvus was a day of ill omen, like dies ater,[5] and Prudentius speaks of dark guilt.[6] Gellius says that the early Romans used it for “black”,[6] and the Festus epitome glosses it nigrum vel atrum.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses the word.[3][4]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of dark clouds.[6][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the caves of the underworld.[6][4]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a dark-skinned people.[6][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius says that the early Romans used it for “black”.[6][4]
  • 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it figuratively of guilt.[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Dark, dusky, swarthy, black.[5][6]
  2. Of the underworld; gloomy.[6][2]
  3. dies furvus, an ill-omened, unlucky day.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press