lapidosus

Forms

lapidōsus (feminine lapidōsa, neuter lapidōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lapis (“stone”) + -ōsus.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *la/eped- for lapis, compares Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “bare rock”), and thinks it probably a Mediterranean loanword.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Varro on,^[4][3][5] who uses it of stony soil (lapidōsa terra).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Ovid uses it of stony mountains and fields and of the pebbly waters of the Aesar (lapidōsās Aesaris undās).^[6][8] Of fruit it meant containing hard stones: Virgil has stony cornel cherries and Columella plums.^[2][8] Horace calls the bread of Canusium gritty (lapidōsus panis),^[2][7] and Persius speaks of gout that hardens the joints like stone.^[2][9] Pliny the Elder has the comparative.^[7]

Medieval British writers used it of stony ground and roads, of what is made of stone or is like stone, and perhaps of a fish living in stony streams.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of stony soil.^[6][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of cornel cherries with hard stones.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of gritty bread.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of stony mountains, fields and rivers.^[6][8][5]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of gout that hardens the joints.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of stones, stony, rocky.^[2][6][7]
2. Full of stony lumps, gritty; hard as stone.^[2][9]
3. Of fruit: containing hard stones.^[2][8]
4. Of gout: forming stones in the joints.^[2][9]
5. (Medieval Latin) Made of stone.^[10]

Word family

• lapidositas

Related words

• lapis
• lapideus

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 k 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 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ 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