Etymologically
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herous

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [heːˈroː.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [eˈrɔː.us][1]

Forms

hērōus (feminine hērōa, neuter hērōum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἡρῷος (hērôios, “heroic; the heroic metre”),[2][1][3] a contracted form of ἡρώϊος (hērṓïos), which belongs to ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”);[1] Latin borrowed the noun as hērōs.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cicero,[5] who in the Orator calls the heroic rhythm, the dactylic hexameter, grander than prose requires.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Cicero and in the writers on metre it is mostly a term for the dactylic hexameter, the verse of epic, and for its foot: Cicero speaks of heroic verses and the heroic foot, and Quintilian says the hērōus is the same as the dactyl.[2][6] Propertius applied it to heroes themselves and to epic poetry,[2] and Ovid writes of the hexameter joined to a shorter line in the elegiac couplet.[2][6] As a masculine noun it meant a hexameter: Ovid recalls a poet famous for his hexameters, and Quintilian calls Ovid playful even in epic verse.[2][6] The TLL notes that the grammarians use it often.[7]

The neuter noun hērōum named a monument to a hero, and in Pliny the Elder also the asphodel.[6][8] Medieval writers kept the adjective for epic verse, and a verse letter of the Mainz collection uses the masculine as a title of address for an archbishop, “lord”.[3]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the heroic rhythm and heroic verse.[2][5]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of heroes and of epic poetry.[2][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it as a noun for a hexameter.[2][5]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian equates the hērōus with the dactyl.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or belonging to heroes, heroic.[2][6]
  2. (of poetry) Dealing with heroes, epic.[2][8]
  3. (prosody) Of the dactylic hexameter, the metre of heroic verse.[2][6]

Noun

  1. A hexameter, a verse in this metre.[2][6]
  2. (prosody) A dactyl.[2][6]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A lord (as a title of address).[3]

Word family

  • hērōum
  • hērōīon
  • hērōon

Usage notes

A separate adjective Hērōus means “of Hero”, the priestess loved by Leander;[2][8][9] Lucan speaks of Hero's towers.[2][8][9]

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 m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier