hariolus

Forms

hariolus m (genitive hariolī); second declension^[1] Manuscripts also spell it ariolus.^[2][3] According to the grammarian Scaurus the old form was fariolus.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive, related to haruspex (“diviner who inspects entrails”),^[4][2][5] perhaps from Proto-Italic *χario-.^[5] De Vaan suggests it is based on a stem ⟨*hari-⟩ or on ⟨*haro-⟩, which became ⟨*hario-⟩;^[5] the first part of haruspex may continue Proto-Indo-European *ǵhrH-u- (“intestines”), although that word has also been taken for an Etruscan loan.^[5] Wiktionary also traces it, with doubt, to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerH-, the root of Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ).^[1]

Ancient scholars had other ideas: Donatus explained the word as if it began with ⟨f⟩, from for (“to speak”),^[2] and Isidore of Seville derived it from the altars, ārae, around which such diviners prayed.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius is the first to use it,^[5][6] for a soothsayer.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It names a diviner or prophet, often in lists with the haruspex and the augur: Cato names it beside the haruspex and the augur, and Plautus and Terence beside the haruspex.^[3][7] Cicero lists hariolī with haruspices, augurs, seers and interpreters of dreams.^[7] The feminine hariola appears in Plautus.^[7][5] The Vulgate uses it too,^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the sense “soothsayer”,^[8] and it continued in medieval texts.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it for a soothsayer.^[5][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it beside haruspex.^[3][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato names it with the haruspex and the augur.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero lists them with haruspices and augurs.^[7][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Leviticus.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soothsayer, diviner, prophet.^[4][7]

Word family

• hariola
• hariolor

Usage notes

A late commentator on Terence distinguishes the two: the hariolus divines about human affairs, the haruspex about divine ones.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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 g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson