hispidus

Forms

hispidus (feminine hispida, neuter hispidum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain; the OLD only compares hirsūtus (“hairy, shaggy”).^[2] Wiktionary and Köbler derive it from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”), the root of horreō (“to bristle”) and hordeum (“barley”);^[1][3] the TLL takes it from an unattested Italic ⟨*hispus⟩, from ⟨*hers-quos⟩, and compares horridus (“rough, bristly”).^[4] De Vaan traces horreō to Proto-Italic *χors-ē- (“to be stiff”) and Proto-Indo-European *ǵhrs-eh1- (“to be stiff, surprised”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is Virgil,^[3] who has a shaggy brow, hispida frōns, in the Aeneid.^[2][6] It means covered with hair, rough, shaggy.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call it a word of poetry and post-Augustan prose.^[6] Horace has a shaggy face, Silius Italicus the shaggy beard of Pan, Juvenal hairy limbs.^[6][2] Of plants it is rough or prickly, as Columella's artichoke, and Statius uses it of rugged mountain ridges.^[2] Terentianus Maurus calls the sound of the letter rho rough, and Gellius uses it figuratively of a coarse, uncultured ear.^[2]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a shaggy brow.^[2][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a shaggy face.^[6][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a prickly artichoke.^[2][3]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a coarse, uncultivated ear.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with hair, rough, shaggy;^[2][6] (of hair) shaggy.^[2][6]
2. (of plants) Bristly, prickly;^[2] (of land) rugged.^[2]
3. (of sounds) Rough.^[2]
4. (figurative) Coarse, uncultured.^[2]

Related words

• horreō
• horridus
• hirsūtus
• English hispid

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from its near-synonyms: horridus is the most general word for what is rough from want of form, hirtus and hirsūtus refer to rough hair as opposed to what is smooth, while hispidus and asper refer to rough projections as opposed to what is level, hispidus to roughness that offends the eye.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper