Etymologically
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labyrinthus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ɫa.byˈrɪn.tʰʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [la.biˈrin.tus][1]

Forms

labyrinthus m (genitive labyrinthī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek λαβύρινθος (labúrinthos, “maze”).[2][1][3] Köbler compares Greek *λάβρυς “double axe”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Catullus (81/79–52/50 BC).[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant a building with many winding passages, especially the one Daedalus built in Crete, as in Virgil, and also the Egyptian labyrinth by Lake Moeris, which Pomponius Mela says had 3,000 rooms.[2][4][5] Figuratively it was a place one cannot escape, or a tangle.[2][1]

Isidore describes it as a building with tangled walls, in which the Minotaur was shut up, and which no one could leave without a ball of thread.[6] English labyrinth was borrowed around 1400, with a Latin form laborintus in the late 14th century.[7]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it.[3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the Cretan labyrinth.[5][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the labyrinths of Egypt and Crete.[5][3]
  • c. 1400 – English labyrinth is recorded.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A labyrinth, maze, especially that of Daedalus in Crete.[2][1]
  2. (figurative) A place with no way out; a tangle.[2][1]

Word family

  • labyrinthēus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com