lepus

Forms

lepus m (genitive leporis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably not an Indo-European word.^[2][1] Pliny calls Ancient Greek λεβηρίς (lebērís, “rabbit”) a word of Massilia, which has led to the suggestion that the Latin word was borrowed from Iberian; de Vaan thinks this possible but not certain, since it could also come from a substrate in Italy itself.^[2] Varro and the OLD compare a Sicilian form λέποριν (léporin), and the TLL thinks the word was common to the peoples around the Mediterranean.^[3][4][5] Ancient grammarians, from Aelius Stilo, derived it from ⟨levipes⟩, “light-footed”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus.^[2] Köbler dates it from Plautus, who has a character told to go and hunt a hare.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

It is the hare.^[3][4] It appears in proverbs: in Terence, you are a hare and you look for tidbits.^[3] Plautus uses it as a pet name, in a list with sparrow and dove.^[3] Cicero's translation of Aratus has the swift-footed Hare under Orion's feet, the constellation Lepus.^[3] The sea hare, a kind of sea slug, is in Ovid.^[3][1] Varro and Pliny also make it feminine.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of hunting a hare and as a pet name.^[3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in a proverb.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the constellation.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the sea hare.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hare; in proverbs; as a term of endearment.^[3][4][1]
2. The constellation Lepus, the Hare.^[3][1]
3. lepus marīnus, the sea hare, a kind of sea slug.^[3][1]

Word family

• leporārius
• leporīnus
• lepusculus

Usage notes

A rare neuter lepus, from Ancient Greek λέπος (lépos, “husk”), is a husk or shell in a Latin translation of Oribasius.^[5]

References

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