idyllium

Forms

īdyllium n (genitive īdylliī or īdyllī); second declension^[1] An inscription has the spelling ēdyllium.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εἰδύλλιον (eidúllion, “short descriptive poem”),^[1][2][3] literally “a little picture”, a diminutive of εἶδος (eîdos, “form”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pliny the Younger (letters of AD 97–113) has the first example, of a short poem.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

It named a short, finely wrought poem, most often on country life but not limited to it.^[4] Ausonius used the plural as the title of a collection of his small poems.^[2][5] Early medieval writers kept the sense of a poem of only a few verses: Boniface ranks it between a long poem and a couplet.^[6]

English took it over as idyll around 1600, from French or directly from Latin.^[3]

Timeline

• 97–113 AD – Pliny the Younger uses it in a letter.^[1][2]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius titles a collection of poems Idyllia.^[2][5][7]
• c. 1600 – English borrows it as idyll.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short poem, a pastoral poem, an idyll.^[1][2][4]
2. (plural) The title of a collection of poems by Ausonius.^[2][5]

Related words

• English idyll

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de