Etymologically
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grando

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɡran.doː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɡran.do][1]

Forms

grandō f (genitive grandinis); third declension[1] Varro uses it as a masculine.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *grand-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₃d-ōn (“hail”).[4] De Vaan explains the Latin form by metathesis in the oblique stem, of the kind seen in unda, after which the paradigm was levelled; the Armenian word may point to a verbal root, probably without the /d/, which is often a root extension.[4] Cognate with Old Armenian կարկուտ (karkut, “hail”) and Old Church Slavonic градъ (gradŭ, “hail”), and probably Sanskrit ह्रादुनि (hrādúni, “hail”), though the Sanskrit word may instead belong to a verb meaning to resound.[4][1][2]

Ancient grammarians had their own explanations: Isidore said it was named because hailstones look like grains, grānum, and Priscian derived it from grandis (“large”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][6] in the ordinary sense of hail.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means hail, and in the plural hailstorms;[2] Cicero, Livy, Virgil and Horace use it.[3] By transfer the poets apply it to volleys of missiles, as Statius' Tyrians attack from above “with stones and a hail of iron”.[2] Wiktionary also gives the figurative sense of a great quantity.[1] Church Latin keeps hail and hailstorm.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of hail.[3][4][6]
  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius has the verb grandinat “it hails”.[4][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of hail in the Georgics.[3][6]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of a hail of missiles.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Hail; in the plural, hailstorms.[2][3][7][1]
  2. (poetic) A volley of missiles.[2]
  3. (figurative) A great quantity, a multitude.[1]

Word family

  • grandineus
  • grandino
  • grandinōsus
  • grandinat

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