gelu

Forms

gelū̆ n sg (genitive gelūs or gelū); fourth declension^[1] Three forms are found: masculine gelus (genitive gelūs), as in Cato and Accius; neuter gelum (genitive gelī), as in Varro and Lucretius; and neuter gelū, which became the usual form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *gelus, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵel-u- (“cold, frost, ice”).^[3] De Vaan notes that by regular sound change the word should have become ⟨golu-⟩, and assumes that the ⟨e⟩ was restored after gelidus.^[3]

Cognate with Old English calan (“to freeze”) and Old Norse kala (“to freeze”),^[3] and, through a related form, with English cold.^[3][1][2] The OLD also compares Oscan γέλα (géla).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in Livius Andronicus' tragedies,^[2][3][4] and Cato advises wrapping with straw so that the frost does no harm (nē gelus noceat).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant frost or frosty weather: Virgil says that winter locks the fields with frost,^[2] and Livy describes living and lifeless things alike stiff with frost.^[2] Concretely it named a deposit of hoar frost, ice or snow: Lucretius speaks of the constant fall of frost, Virgil of land lying deep under it, and Ovid of a beard white with frost;^[2] Pliny the Elder writes of judging the thickness of ice by putting an ear to it.^[2]

From Virgil on it also meant the chill of old age, death or fear, as in Virgil's tarda gelū saeclīsque effēta senectūs, “old age, slow with cold and worn out by the years”.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin used it for frost and cold,^[5] and it lives on in Italian gelo, Romanian ger and Sardinian ghelu.^[1]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it in a tragedy.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the masculine gelus of frost harming plants.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses the form gelum.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the chill of old age.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of ice.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Frost, frosty weather.^[2][1]
2. A deposit of hoar frost; ice, snow.^[2]
3. Cold, chill, as of old age, death or fear.^[2][1]

Word family

• gelidus
• gelō
• gelicidium
• congelō

Related words

• glaciēs
• English cold

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson