hara

Forms

hara f (genitive harae); first declension^[1] Manuscripts have both hara and ara.^[2][3] Priscian distinguishes it from āra “altar” by its short first syllable and its ⟨h⟩.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][1] The OLD and the TLL compare cohors, and the TLL also hortus.^[5][2] Walde and Hofmann derived it, like the first of these, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to grab”), and Köbler follows them;^[4][6] de Vaan rejects this, since the preform would have given ⟨hora⟩ in Latin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who uses it of a pen for animals and, in the Mostellaria, has hara suis, “pigsty”, as a term of abuse.^[7][3][8]

Semantic evolution

It is a small enclosure for domestic animals or poultry,^[5] such as the goose pen of Varro and Columella,^[7] and above all a pigsty.^[5][3] In the speech against Piso, Cicero addresses his opponent as Epicūre noster, ex harā prōducte, nōn ex scholā, “our Epicurus, brought out of a pigsty, not out of a school”.^[7][2]

Medieval writers in Britain use it of the pigsty in town laws and accounts, and in verses that contrast ăra porcōrum, the sty, with āra deōrum, the altar of the gods.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of an animal pen and as a term of abuse.^[7][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it in his work on farming.^[8][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a goose pen and a pigsty.^[7][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively against Piso.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small pen or coop for domestic animals or poultry.^[5][7]
2. A pigsty.^[5][7][9]
3. (figurative) A term of abuse for a filthy person.^[7][3]

Usage notes

Donatus, commenting on Terence, derived haruspex from hariga “victim”, which he took from hara, the pen in which the victim was kept.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b 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