Etymologically
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latratus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaːˈtraː.tʊs], [ɫaːˈtraː.tuːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈtraː.tus], [laˈtraː.tus][1]

Forms

lātrātus m (genitive lātrātūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lātrō (“to bark”) + -tus, a verbal noun of the fourth declension.[2][1][3] De Vaan derives that verb from ⟨*lātro-⟩ “barking”, going back to Proto-Italic *lātro- (“barking”) and Proto-Indo-European *leh₂-tro- (“barking”), from the root also in lāmenta “wailing”.[4] He compares Sanskrit रायति (rā́yati, “barks”) and Lithuanian lóti (“to bark, scold”).[4] Varro explained the word from lateō, because dogs show at night what lies hidden.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Accius,[4][5] who uses it of the roaring of the waves on a curved shore.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the barking or baying of dogs: Virgil tells the huntsman to rouse boars with barking, Ovid has barks uttered, and Juvenal sleep broken by barking.[6] Transferred, it is shouting or bawling, as the unusual bawling in the forum in Valerius Maximus, and the roaring of the sea.[2] Lewis & Short call it post-Augustan, but the OLD quotes it from Accius and Varro.[6][2]

Timeline

  • 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of the roaring sea.[2][4][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of barking dogs.[2][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of hounds rousing boars.[6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A barking, baying (of dogs).[2][6][1]
  2. Shouting, bawling; the roaring of the sea.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d 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 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