incurvus

Forms

incurvus (feminine incurva, neuter incurvum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The OLD and Wiktionary analyse it as from Latin in- + curvus (“curved”).^[2][1] The TLL reports that Brender took it as a back-formation from the verb incurvō (“to bend”), like recurvus, while Leumann preferred to derive it from incurvēscō (“to become curved”).^[3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of curvus, whose etymology he calls uncertain: the best connection is with Celtic words for “hooked” from ⟨*kurso-⟩, such as Old Irish corr, and perhaps Ancient Greek κυρτός (kurtós, “curved”), but a root ⟨*kur-⟩ is not a valid Indo-European structure.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Terence,^[4][5] whose Eunuchus has incurvos tremulus labiis demissis gemens, “stooping, trembling, lips drooping, groaning”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means curved, crooked, bent: Varro has a crooked stick, Cicero the augur's staff, Lucretius a curving shore, Sallust buildings with curved sides, and Virgil the curved plough.^[2][6] Of persons it means bent downwards, stooping or bowed, as an old man's statue in Cicero;^[2] Pliny the Elder writes that people stooping at the shoulders are long-lived, and Apuleius has a man bent by labour.^[2] The nominative singular is sometimes spelled incurvos, as in Terence and Mela.^[3] Medieval British writers use it of bent or crooked limbs and of stooping persons;^[7] Bede describes a tall man paululum incurvus, “slightly stooped”.^[7]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a stooping person.^[4][2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a crooked stick.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has the curved plough.^[2][5]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede describes a tall man as slightly stooped.^[7][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Curved, crooked, bent.^[2][6]
2. Of persons, bent downwards, stooping, bowed.^[2][6][8]

Related words

• incurvō
• incurvēscō

Usage notes

Döderlein explains curvus as the general word for every degree of crookedness, against uncus for a hook-like bend and pandus for a slight one;^[9] Lewis and Short oppose incurvus to recurvus and pandus.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper