genus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɡɛ.nʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈd͡ʒɛː.nus]^[1]

Forms

genus n (genitive generis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *genos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁os (“race, offspring”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, produce”), the root of gignō and gēns.^[2][1] The genitive generis comes from *genes-os by the change of /s/ to /r/ between vowels.^[1] Cognate with Sanskrit जन (jána, “race, people”) and Ancient Greek γένος (génos, “race, kind”), and with Gaulish personal names such as Gaulish Cintugenus.^[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Naevius first.^[2][5] Köbler dates Naevius c. 235–200 BC.^[5] In Plautus it is already birth or descent: a character says he was born of the highest stock.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was descent, birth or origin, often with the idea of noble birth, and concretely a family or line.^[3] It also meant offspring, a nation or race, a generation, and an order of living creatures, genus hūmānum was the human race.^[3] In philosophy it became a class containing several kinds, and generally any kind, variety or sort of animals, things or abstract matters.^[3] Grammarians used it of grammatical gender.^[1]

Varro, as the TLL reports, said that genus was named from begetting, because whatever begets or is begotten can be called a genus.^[4] Döderlein groups it with stirps and gēns as words for a race seen in the ascending line, the ancestors.^[6] In medieval British Latin it was stock, lineage and family.^[7] English took genus as a term of logic in the 1550s and as a biological rank about 1600.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses the word.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of birth and descent.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero defines a genus as what embraces several parts.^[3][5]
• 1550s – English genus is recorded as a term of logic; the biological sense follows about 1600.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Birth, descent, origin; noble birth; a family, line.^[3]
2. Offspring.^[3]
3. A nation, race; a generation.^[3]
4. An order of living creatures, genus hūmānum, mankind.^[3]
5. (philosophy) A class containing several kinds.^[3]
6. A kind, variety, sort, species.^[3][1]
7. (grammar) gender.^[1]

Word family

• bigener
• congener
• dēgener
• generālis
• generō
• generōsus
• multigenerus
• generātim

Related words

• gignō
• gēns
• ingenium
• English genus
• English gender
• English general
• English generation

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com