glaucus

Forms

glaucus (feminine glauca, neuter glaucum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γλαυκός (glaukós, “gleaming; bluish-grey”).^[2][1][3] Köbler notes that the further origin of the Greek word is unclear.^[3] Etymonline explains that Homer used it of the gleaming sea, apparently without a colour, and later writers of greenish olive leaves and grey or blue eyes.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Accius has it in a tragedy, of breasts covered with grey-green vine leaves.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the blue-grey of the sea and rivers, as Lucretius has of the waves, and in poetry of things connected with the sea.^[2] Columella and others use it of the colour of eyes,^[2] and Virgil of horses, perhaps meaning blue-eyed ones.^[2] It is also the grey-green of vegetation, as Virgil's willows with grey-green leaves.^[2] Stelten gives “bluish gray”.^[5] English glaucous comes from it in the 1670s.^[4]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, of grey-green vine leaves.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of the waves.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of horses and willows.^[2][3]
• 1670s – glaucous appears in English.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Blue-grey, of the colour of the sea and rivers; of eyes, grey or blue.^[2][1][5]
2. Of horses, perhaps blue-eyed.^[2]
3. Of vegetation, grey-green, glaucous.^[2][1]

Word family

• glaucicomans
• glaucēdō
• subglaucus

Related words

• glaucēum
• glaucōma
• glaucōpis
• English glaucous

Usage notes

A separate noun glaucus, from Ancient Greek γλαῦκος (glaûkos), is an unidentified fish;^[2][1] Isidore explains its name from its white colour.^[6] Glaucus is also the name of several mythological figures: a Boeotian fisherman who became a sea god, the Lycian commander in the Trojan War, and a son of Sisyphus eaten by his own horses.^[2][7]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press