Etymologically
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mulier

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈmʊ.li.ɛr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmuː.li.er][1]

Forms

mulier f (genitive mulieris); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3][1] The derivative muliebris (from ⟨*mulies-ri-⟩) shows that it was first an s-stem, nominative ⟨*mulies⟩, which became ⟨mulier⟩.[2][4] Sommer, Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny took it as a comparative of mollis “soft”, “the softer one”, as Isidore had; de Vaan objects that the correct preform would have given a different Latin form.[2][4][5] Klingenschmitt proposed a comparative of the stem of melior “better”, “the chief spouse”, which de Vaan finds needs two unparalleled assumptions.[2] Wiktionary also mentions mulgeō “to milk”, “the milk-giver”, and sets up Proto-Italic *moljes.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the Twelve Tables and Livius Andronicus.[2][6] Plautus has amāre occēpī fōrmā eximiā mulierem, “I fell in love with a woman of rare beauty”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Mulier is a woman in general, and specifically a woman who is married or not a virgin, as against virgō.[3][5][1] With a genitive or possessive it is a man's wife or mistress (Catullus: nūllī sē dīcit mulier mea nūbere mālle quam mihi, “my woman says she would rather marry no one but me”).[3] Figuratively it is used as an insult, “coward”.[1] Döderlein contrasts fēmina, woman by sex, as against mās, with mulier, woman as the weaker sex, as against vir.[7]

Church Latin glosses it “woman, wife”.[8] Wiktionary records a Medieval Latin sense “adult virgin”.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – Used in the Twelve Tables.[2][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: amāre occēpī fōrmā eximiā mulierem.[3][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: quid mulieris uxōrem habēs?, “what sort of woman have you got for a wife?”[3][6]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus: nūllī sē dīcit mulier mea nūbere mālle.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A woman.[3][5][1][8]
  2. A married woman (as against a virgin).[3][1]
  3. A wife, a mistress.[3][1][8]
  4. (figurative) A coward.[1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) An adult virgin.[1]

Word family

  • muliebris
  • mulierārius
  • muliercula
  • mulieritās
  • mulierō
  • mulierōsus
  • muliebritās
  • muliebriter
  • muliebrōsus
  • mulierculārius
  • mulierōsitās

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson