hirundo

Pronunciation

• Classical: [hɪˈrʊn.doː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [iˈrun.do]^[1]

Forms

hirundō f (genitive hirundinis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled irundō.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][1] The OLD and the TLL call it imitative, like hirriō (“to snarl”), and Walde and Hofmann held the same view, though de Vaan notes that the suffix then remains unclear.^[2][4][3] Lockwood proposed that the swallow was named for its forked tail and linked the word with harundō (“reed”), but de Vaan finds no proof that the word for reed could mean a forked stick.^[3] Lewis & Short took it from Ancient Greek χελιδών (khelidṓn, “swallow”), which Wiktionary only compares.^[5][1] Varro counted it among birds named from their calls, and Isidore explained it from its taking food on the wing rather than sitting.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL find it first in Plautus;^[3][4] in the Rudens someone speaks of taking swallows from the nest.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It covers swallows and various martins.^[2] Plautus uses it as a pet name, beside duckling and little dove,^[5] and Lucretius has the proverb asking how a swallow could compete with swans.^[5] Virgil, Ovid and Horace have it,^[5] and writers note it as a migrant whose coming marks the season, and a bird that flies low over water before rain.^[4] Pliny the Elder also uses it of a flying fish.^[2][5] Isidore calls it most skilful in building nests and rearing young.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of swallows and as a pet name.^[2][5][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, “a swallow against swans”.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a swallow over a lake.^[5][4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of a flying fish.^[2][5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swallow or martin; a pet name.^[2][5][1]
2. A flying fish.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• hirundineus
• hirundinīnus

References

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