Etymologically
Log in

laniger

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:24. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɫaː.nɪ.ɡɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈlaː.ni.d͡ʒer][1]

Forms

lāniger (feminine lānigera, neuter lānigerum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of lāna (“wool”) and -ger (“bearing”).[2][3][1] De Vaan traces lāna to Proto-Italic *wlānā- (“wool”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ulh₁-neh₂- (“wool”), literally “plucked material”, and compares Lithuanian vìlna (“wool”), Ancient Greek λῆνος (lênos, “wool”) and Old Irish olann (“wool”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius.[4][5] Cicero quotes Accius' woolly flock.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a poetic word for wool-bearing, woolly, fleecy, especially in phrases for sheep, as Virgil's woolly sheep and flocks.[2][6] As a noun it is a ram or a sheep: Ovid has an old ram worn out by countless years.[2][1] Pliny the Elder applies it to trees that bear cotton and to the woolly matter of spiders.[2][6] It also means made of wool, as Virgil's woollen caps of the Salii.[2] Wiktionary notes the poetic use for the constellation of the Ram.[1]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius.[4][5]
  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of a woolly flock.[6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of sheep and woollen caps.[2]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of an old ram.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of cotton trees.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Wool-bearing, woolly, fleecy.[2][6][1]
  2. Producing a woolly material (of trees, insects).[2][6]
  3. Made of wool.[2]

Noun

  1. A ram, a sheep;[2][1] (poetic) the constellation of the Ram.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press