grandaevus

Forms

grandaevus (feminine grandaeva, neuter grandaevum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin grandis (“great”) + aevum (“age”) + -us.^[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no convincing etymology for grandis: he rejects the comparison with Ancient Greek βρένθος (brénthos, “pride”), and finds that Vennemann's idea of a Vasconian substrate word shared with Basque handi (“big”) needs too many ad hoc assumptions.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it from Lucilius.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It means of great age, aged, and Lewis & Short note that it is poetic and post-Augustan.^[2][7] Virgil has aged Nereus and old bees, Ovid aged fathers, Propertius old oxen, and Tacitus old men;^[7][6] Silius calls the Senate grandaeva manus, and Pliny the Elder mentions gods who are always old and grey.^[7] Later it is used as a noun, an old man, in the Ilias Latina and Augustine,^[6] and figuratively of mature or serious counsel in Sedulius and Cassiodorus.^[6] Church Latin keeps the sense of great age.^[8] The noun grandaevitās, agedness, is older, found in Pacuvius and Accius.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius.^[4][6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of aged Nereus.^[7][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus, of old men.^[7][5]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius, of mature counsel.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of great age, aged, old.^[2][7][1]
2. (Late Latin) Mature, serious.^[6]

Noun

1. An old man.^[6]

Related words

• grandis
• aevum
• grandaevitās
• longaevus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson