garrulus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɡar.rʊ.ɫʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɡar.ru.lus]^[1]

Forms

garrulus (feminine garrula, neuter garrulum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin garriō (“to chatter”) + -ulus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan tentatively reconstructs garriō as *gārje/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵ(e)h₂r-ie/o- (“to shout”), and compares Old Irish gairid (“calls”).^[4] Etymonline calls the root imitative.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[4] Plautus lists the “bold, garrulous and malicious”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant talkative, chattering, as Varro's “a talkative, sharp man” and Horace's bore.^[2][6] Lewis & Short note it is classical but not in Cicero.^[7] It was used of birds, as Virgil's chattering swallow and Ovid's crow and partridge, and of a babbling brook in Ovid.^[2][6]

Döderlein says the garrulus is tiresome by the quality of what he says, the loquax by its quantity.^[8] In medieval Latin garrulus was also the jay.^[9] English garrulous was borrowed in the 1610s.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][9]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a talkative man.^[2][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a swallow.^[2][9]
• 1610s – English garrulous is borrowed.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Talkative, chattering, garrulous.^[2][1]
2. (of birds) Chattering, twittering, (of water) babbling.^[2][6]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A jay.^[9]

Word family

• garrulitās

Related words

• garrio
• English garrulous

Usage notes

Döderlein separates garrire, talking from love of talking, from fabulari, idle talk, and blaterare, foolish talk.^[8]

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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de