mythicus

Forms

mȳthicus (feminine mȳthica, neuter mȳthicum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] Varro kept the Greek ending (mȳthicon), and manuscripts often spell it mit(h)-.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μυθικός (muthikós), from μῦθος (mûthos, “word, tale”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first user is Varro, of 116–27 BC,^[3][5] as Augustine reports him: the poets' theology was called mythicon, beside that of the philosophers and that of the state.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Augustine explains that in Latin one would call it “fabulous”, since μῦθος means a tale,^[3] and Censorinus reports Varro's name mythicon for the age of legends before the first Olympiad.^[3] Tertullian took over Varro's term,^[3] and used the plural for the mythographers, as did Macrobius, who sets them against the natural philosophers.^[3][6][2] Italian mitico goes back to it.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro calls the poets' theology mythicon (in Augustine).^[3][5]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the adjective and the plural noun.^[3][5]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius writes of the mythici.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of myths, mythical, fabulous.^[3][1][2]

Noun

1. (chiefly plural) A writer of myths, mythographer.^[3][1][6]

Usage notes

In Pliny the Elder (7.184) mythicus is a false reading for mysticus.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier