heroicus

Forms

hērōicus (feminine hērōica, neuter hērōicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] A Greek form hērōicos is also used.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡρωικός (hērōikós, “of heroes”),^[2][1][3] from ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”) and the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero (81–43 BC) uses it of the age of the mythical heroes: hērōicīs temporibus, and he calls Medea and Atreus hērōicae persōnae.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero and Quintilian it describes the heroes and their times; in the Tusculans Cicero says that Ulysses and Nestor were held wise in the heroic ages.^[2][4] Of poetry it came to mean epic, and of verse the metre of epic, the dactylic hexameter: Tacitus speaks of the sound of heroic poetry, and Gellius and Terentianus Maurus of the heroic verse.^[2] English took heroical in the early 15th century and heroic in the 1540s.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero: the heroic age and heroic characters.^[2][3]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of the heroes.^[2][3]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus: the sound of heroic (epic) poetry.^[2][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius: the heroic verse.^[2][3]
• 1540s – English heroic.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the mythical heroes, heroic; typical of the heroes.^[2][4][1]
2. (of poetry) epic;^[2][1] versus hērōicus, the hexameter.^[2][1]

Related words

• hērōs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com