Etymologically
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maeander

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Forms

maeander m (genitive maeandrī); second declension[1][2] Also maeandrus and maeandros.[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek Μαίανδρος (Maíandros),[1][2][3] the name of a river of Phrygia proverbial for its winding course.[4][1] An ancient explanation in Festus says that a kind of painting was called by this name from its likeness to the bends of the river.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a common noun it is first found in Cicero's speech against Piso, of the roundabout ways and twists that Piso sought out.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

The river itself, the Maeander, was named by Livy and others, and Ovid made it the type of a river that plays in its waters and flows back and forth.[1] Columella speaks of cutting channels more Maeandrī, in the manner of the Maeander.[1][2] From the river came a wavy line or winding border: Virgil describes a cloak around which purple runs in a double maeander.[1][5] In the plural it meant roundabout ways, turns and twists, also in argument: Gellius speaks of the twists and windings of dialectic.[1][5]

Medieval writers used it for a winding course, any winding, and a wavy border on a garment.[6] English took it over in the 1570s as meander, first meaning “confusion, intricacy”, and used it of rivers from the 1590s.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of roundabout ways.[1][8]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a winding border on a cloak.[1][8]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy names the river.[1][8]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius speaks of the windings of dialectic.[1][8]
  • 1570s – Borrowed into English as meander.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Maeander: a river of Phrygia, famous for its winding course.[1][4][2]
  2. A wavy line; a winding border on a garment.[1][5]
  3. (in the plural, figurative) Roundabout ways, turns, twists.[1][2]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A winding course, a meander.[6]

Word family

  • Maeandrius
  • Maeandricus
  • maeandrātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b 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. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de