hibernus

Forms

hībernus (feminine hīberna, neuter hībernum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *χeimrino- (“wintry”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeym-r-ino- (“wintry”), with ⟨*heimrinos⟩ becoming ⟨*heibrinos⟩ and then ⟨hībernus⟩.^[2][1][3] Cognate with Ancient Greek χειμερινός (kheimerinós, “wintry”).^[3][1] It belongs with hiems (“winter”), which de Vaan traces to *ǵʰéyōm (“winter”), cognate with Old Irish gaim (“winter”), Hittite gimm- (“winter”) and Sanskrit हिम (himá-, “cold, frost”), Latin keeps the full grade of the root only in this derivative.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,^[4] who has tunicae hībernae, “winter tunics”, in the Miles gloriosus, and the joke “in one hour” – “add ‘a winter one’” in the Pseudolus.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is of or belonging to winter, and hībernō is “in winter”; it is used of what happens in winter, as Cato's winter figs, and of what is meant for winter, as Plautus' tunics.^[3][5] It is also wintry or subject to wintry weather, as Bibaculus' “wintry Alps”.^[3][1] Of places, especially camps, it is suitable for spending the winter, and the neuter plural became the noun hīberna.^[1]

Köbler records it in an 8th-century sermon.^[4] Stelten refers to hībernālis and hiemālis for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of winter tunics.^[3][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of winter figs.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of winter, wintry, hībernō, in winter.^[3][1][5]
2. Occurring in or designed for winter, (of camps) for winter quarters.^[3][1]
3. Subject to wintry conditions, stormy.^[3][1]

Word family

• hībernum
• hīberna
• hībernāculum
• hībernālis
• hībernō

Related words

• hiems
• hiemālis
• aestīvus
• English hibernate

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson