horrens

Forms

horrēns, genitive horrentis; comparative horrentior^[1][2]

Etymology

It is the present participle of horreō (“to bristle, shudder”), used as an adjective.^[1][3][2] De Vaan traces horreō to Proto-Italic *χors-ē- (“to be stiff”) and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥s-eh₁- (“to be stiff, surprised”), comparing Sanskrit हृष्यति (hṛṣyati, “to be delighted”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conte and Gaffiot cite it first from Lucretius, of the bristling boar of Arcadia.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the senses of the verb it means bristling, rough or shaggy: Virgil has the rough crags of Tetrica and Latins bristling with arms, and Pliny the Younger bristling hair.^[2][3] It also means dreadful or awful, a sense the OLD gives beside those of the verb.^[1] Conte cites this sense from Florus.^[2]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the bristling boar.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of rough crags and of soldiers bristling with arms.^[2][3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bristling, rough, shaggy; prickly.^[3][2]
2. Dreadful, awful.^[1][2]

Related words

• horreō
• horror
• horridus

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de