gannio

Forms

ganniō (present infinitive gannīre, perfect active gannīvī); fourth conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is imitative of sound.^[2][3][4] Pokorny joined it to a root found in words for mocking and grumbling,^[1] but de Vaan finds that most of these words go back to a form meaning “to mock”, while the Latin verb is above all a growl; he takes the Slavic words, such as Russian гугнивый (gugnivyj, “speaking through the nose”), as the likeliest comparanda.^[4][1] Since a Proto-Italic ⟨*gangn-⟩ would not normally give ⟨gann-⟩, the form would have been changed by its sound-imitating nature, as Walde and Hofmann assume.^[4] The OLD compares Ancient Greek γαγγαίνω (gangaínō).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is its first author: a character snarls, hated by the whole household.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its proper use was for dogs:^[6] Varro said that asses bray, dogs yelp (canēs gannīre) and chicks cheep,^[6][3] and Suetonius gives it as the cry of foxes.^[2][7] Döderlein contrasts it, the harmless yelp of a small dog, with lātrāre, the hostile bark of a large one.^[8] Of people it was to snarl or grumble at someone, as in Terence and Afranius,^[7][2] and in Apuleius, in a good sense, the cooing of lovers.^[7]

It survives in Italian gannire and Spanish ganir.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a snarling person.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of people.^[7][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro gives it as the cry of dogs.^[6][3][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius gives it as the cry of foxes.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of lovers' talk.^[7][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of dogs, foxes) To yelp, whimper.^[2][6]
2. (of people) To snarl, grumble.^[2][7]
3. To coo, chatter lovingly.^[7]

Word family

• gannītiō
• gannītus
• ogganniō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper