Etymologically
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hornus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhoːr.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔr.nus][1]

Forms

hōrnus (feminine hōrna, neuter hōrnum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2][1] It is perhaps inherited from Proto-Italic *hōrnos, from earlier *hojōrnos,[1] and most scholars explain it as a derivative of a phrase meaning “this year”, made of the pronoun stem seen in hodiē and Proto-Indo-European *yóh₁r̥ (“year”), the source of English year.[2][3][1] Old High German hiuru (“this year”) is a parallel formation.[4][1] De Vaan notes that the uninflected pronoun and the short vowel of the suffix are hard to explain.[2]

Szemerényi instead derived it from Greek, as a reshaping of Ancient Greek ὥριμος (hṓrimos, “ripe, timely”) or of a similar adjective; de Vaan points out that the word is used mainly of crops and yield, so that it seems to mean “of the season” rather than “of this year”.[2] Lewis and Short had already connected it with ὥρα (hṓra, “season”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Georges record it first in a fragment of Varro, of the year's harvest,[6][7] while de Vaan lists Horace as the first author;[2] it means “of this year, this year's”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is used of what is grown, born or produced in the current year, above all crops and their yield:[3][2] Horace has horna fruge, “with this year's grain”, horna vina and horna palea, and Propertius this year's lambs.[5] Lewis and Short note that Cicero does not use it but has hornōtinus;[5] Döderlein likewise calls hornus the poetic word and hornotinus the prose one.[8]

Calpurnius uses it as a noun for the year's yield of wool, milk or cheese.[7][6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the year's harvest.[7][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of this year's grain and wine.[5][6]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of this year's lambs.[5][6]
  • 2nd third of the 1st century AD – Calpurnius uses it as a noun for the year's yield.[7][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of this year, this year's; grown, born or produced in the current year.[3][5]

Noun

  1. This year's yield (of wool, milk, cheese and the like).[7]

Word family

  • hornōtinus
  • hōrnō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper