Etymologically
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horrens

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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]

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