gyrus

Forms

gȳrus m (genitive gȳrī); second declension^[1] The spelling gur- is read in Manilius.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “ring, circle”).^[2][3][1] Etymonline relates the Greek word to γυρός (gurós, “rounded”) and, perhaps, to Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve”);^[4][5] Köbler refers it to Pokorny's root of the same meaning.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero, who says that people made unruly by success should be led, as if into a training ring, under reason and learning.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It was the circular course on which horses were trained, as in Virgil, and Tacitus notes that the Germans did not teach their horses to vary their circles in the Roman way.^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic.^[3] It is any circle described in motion, such as a top that boys whip round, and a wheeling movement.^[2] Manilius uses it of a ring and of the circles of the heavens, and Catullus of the orbit of the moon.^[2] Döderlein distinguishes it from orbis, a circular motion, and circulus, a flat circle, as a curved or winding line.^[6] In medieval Latin it is the surroundings of a place, a rampart and a tournament.^[7] English took it as gyre in the 1560s, and as gyrus for a fold of the brain in 1827.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a training ring.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of the moon's orbit.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a whirling top.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Manilius of the circles of the sky.^[2][5]
• 1560s – English borrows it as gyre.^[4]
• 1827 – English gyrus for a fold of the brain.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A circular course on which horses were trained or raced, a ring.^[2][3][1]
2. A circle described in motion; a wheeling movement;^[2][3][8][1] in gȳrum, in a circle.^[2][3][8][1]
3. A circle, ring;^[2] in gȳrum, all round.^[2]
4. (astronomy) The orbit of a heavenly body; a circle of the heavens.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) The surroundings of a place; a rampart; a tournament.^[7]

Word family

• gȳrō

Related words

• gȳrātus
• English gyre
• English gyrus

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 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson