iubar

Forms

iubar n (genitive iubaris); third declension^[1] Ennius and the Aetna treat it as masculine.^[2][3] Ennius once has iubār.^[4]

Etymology

De Vaan, following Dunkel's analysis, traces it to Proto-Italic *dju-faos and Proto-Indo-European *diu-bʰeh₂-es- (“having or bringing the light of daytime”), a compound of the word for sky or day with the root of shining, first an epithet of some neuter noun.^[4] He compares Sanskrit भास् (bhā́s-, “light, radiance”) and Ancient Greek φαίνω (phaínō, “to shine, reveal”).^[4] The OLD calls the origin doubtful and the TLL uncertain;^[2][5] Lewis & Short and Köbler connect it with iuba “mane”,^[3][6] and ancient writers derived it from the mane or from Jupiter.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[4] in whom someone asks whether the light seen in the sky is the dawn.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first the light of dawn: Pacuvius has the rising of the morning light, and Virgil chosen young men leaving the gates at sunrise.^[2] More generally it is the radiance of heavenly bodies or of fire: Lucretius has the sun's trembling light under the earth, and Ovid the morning star raising its bright light from the sea.^[2][3] Festus explains it as the star the Greeks call Phosphorus or Hesperus.^[3] Concretely it is a source of light: in Ovid a soul is to be made into a star.^[2][3] Figuratively it is splendour or glory, as Martial's radiance pouring from Caesar's face.^[3] Church Latin glosses it radiance, beaming light.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of dawn in the sky.^[2][4][6]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of the rising light.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the sun's light.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of sunrise.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the morning star and of a soul made a star.^[2][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The first light of day, dawn.^[2][1]
2. Radiance, brightness of heavenly bodies or fire; a source of light, a star.^[2][3][1][7]
3. (figurative) Splendour, glory.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson