mantis

Forms

mantis m (genitive mantidis or mantis); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μάντις (mántis, “seer, prophet”).^[1][2][3] Beekes takes the Greek word to be derived from μαίνομαι (maínomai, “to rage, be inspired”), though the vowel of its stem would have to be an analogical zero grade, which makes the etymology somewhat doubtful.^[4] Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[3][5]

In Greek it also named a plant and, in Theocritus and later, the praying mantis.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hyginus uses it in the Fabulae for a soothsayer, a seer.^[1][7][8] Köbler dates the Fabulae perhaps to the 2nd century AD.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Latin used it only rarely, as a learned word for a diviner;^[1][2] an interpolated passage of the Pseudo-Apuleian herbal also gives it as the name of a plant.^[7]

Modern Latin made it the name of the praying mantis, from the insect's way of holding its forelegs as if in prayer, and English took it over in the 1650s.^[6][9]

Timeline

• 2nd century AD? – Hyginus uses it for a soothsayer in the Fabulae.^[1][3]
• 1650s – English borrows the Modern Latin insect name mantis.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soothsayer, a diviner.^[1][2][8]
2. A plant name in the Pseudo-Apuleian herbal.^[7]
3. (New Latin) A mantis, an insect that holds its forelegs as if praying.^[6][9]

Word family

• mantiscinor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Victionarium (Latin Wiktionary), la.wiktionary.org