Etymologically
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harenosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ha.reːˈnoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [a.reˈnɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

harēnōsus (feminine harēnōsa, neuter harēnōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled arēnōsus, but h- is the usual spelling in the manuscripts.[2][3] Pliny the Elder has the comparative and the superlative.[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin harēna (“sand”) + -ōsus.[2][3][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for harēna, which also had the forms ⟨asena⟩ and, as Varro reports, a Sabine ⟨fasena⟩.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,[5][6] who lists sandy among the kinds of soil.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means containing or consisting of sand, sandy:[2] Virgil has the sandy shore of Libya, Ovid a sandy river and sandy land.[4] As a neuter noun it is a sandy place, as in Sallust's plants that grow in dry and sandy ground.[2] Celsus uses it of a gritty bladder stone and of urine containing sand.[2] Köbler records it in Aldhelm and the Bible versions.[6]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of sandy soil.[2][5][6]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust, of sandy places.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of the Libyan shore.[4][6]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of sandy urine.[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Sandy, full of sand;[2][4][1] as a noun, a sandy place.[2]
  2. Sandy in quality, gritty.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de