interaneus

Forms

interāneus (feminine interānea, neuter interāneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] Spellings with ⟨ent-⟩ and ⟨intr-⟩ also occur, the latter by association with intra.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin inter + -āneus.^[1][2] The TLL reports two further views: Leumann derived it from a form *intera (“entrails”) matching Ancient Greek ἔντερα (éntera), comparing exenterāre, while Walde and Hofmann compared extrāneus.^[3]

Its substantivized plural lives on in Romance: Old French entraignes, Old Italian entragne, Spanish entrañas and Portuguese entranhas.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the 1st century AD in Columella and Scribonius Largus;^[3][4] Scribonius uses it as an adjective of an internal abscess (vomica),^[5][2] and Columella has the neuter plural for the guts of birds.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it meant “intestinal” or “internal”;^[1][5] far more common was the substantivized neuter plural interānea, “the intestines, entrails”, with the singular interāneum for a gut or the rectum in Pliny the Elder.^[5][2] The TLL notes that the word belongs mainly to the more popular writers: Vegetius and almost all the Church writers avoid it, except where they follow the old Bible versions, and the Vulgate lacks it.^[3]

Medieval Latin kept both uses: the MLW records it for the belly and inner organs and for the inside of the head or chest,^[6] and British sources use it of internal pain and, as a plural noun, of the entrails and of interior parts in general.^[7]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses the neuter plural for the entrails of birds.^[3][4]
• c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses the adjective of an internal abscess.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses interāneum for a gut and interānea for the entrails.^[5][2][4]
• first half of the 3rd century AD – Solinus has the plural noun.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Intestinal; internal.^[1][5][8]
2. (Medieval Latin) Of the inside of the head or chest.^[6][7]

Noun

1. (neuter plural, interānea) The intestines, entrails.^[5][2][9]
2. (neuter singular, interāneum) A gut, the rectum.^[5][2]

Related words

• intralia
• intestinum

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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli