Etymologically
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imbrifer

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪm.brɪ.fɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈim.bri.fer][1]

Forms

imbrifer (feminine imbrifera, neuter imbriferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin imber (“rain”) + -fer (“bearing”).[2][1][3] The noun imber goes back to Proto-Italic *n̥fr-i- (“cloud”) and Proto-Indo-European *n̥bʰ-r-o- (“(rain) cloud”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil is the first to have it, in the Georgics, of the rainy spring: imbriferum vēr.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It was a poetic word, also found in prose after Augustus.[5] Ovid calls the south winds rain-bringing, and Columella speaks of a stormy and rainy state of the sky, contrasted with a calm one.[5][8] Martial applies it to the Nile in the sense of overflowing.[5][8]

Medieval poets and chroniclers kept it for rain-bearing clouds, winds and months:[9][10] Alcuin has clouds heavy with rain,[9] and a Carolingian calendar calls December the rain-bringing month.[10] It could also mean moistening, of dew wetting the earth.[10]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the rainy spring.[5][7]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the south winds.[5][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it in prose of a rainy sky.[8][7]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of the overflowing Nile.[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Bringing rain, rainy.[2][5]
  2. (of a river) Overflowing.[5][8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) Moistening, bringing dew.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b 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
  10. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften