mugitus

Forms

mūgītus m (genitive mūgītūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mūgiō (“to low, bellow”) + -tus, an action noun.^[2][1] De Vaan calls mūgiō an onomatopoeic imitation of a cow's lowing, and reconstructs Proto-Italic *mūg- and Proto-Indo-European *mū̆g-.^[3] He compares Ancient Greek μυκάομαι (mukáomai, “to low, bellow”) and Hittite mūgae-zi (“to invoke, entreat”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro, whom the OLD quotes first for the lowing of cattle.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short find it in classical writers: Virgil has the lowing of oxen, and Ovid the phrases ⟨mūgītūs edere⟩ and ⟨mūgītūs dare⟩, to low.^[4] In Virgil's Eclogues the daughters of Proetus, who thought they were cows, fill the fields with false lowing.^[5] Pliny the Elder applies it to the deep bellow of a wild beast, and Seneca to the roaring of angry people.^[2] Cicero uses it of any deep rumbling noise, as the roaring of the earth.^[2][4] Köbler finds it in the Bible.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro of cattle lowing.^[2][3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the rumbling of the earth.^[2][4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of oxen and of false lowing.^[4][5][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of the roaring of angry people.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lowing or bellowing of cattle; a similar noise of other animals; a roar of anger or grief.^[2][4][1]
2. Any deep sustained noise, rumbling, roaring.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• mūgiō
• mūgītor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b 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