Etymologically
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naufragus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈnau̯.fra.ɡʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈnaːu̯.fra.ɡus][1]

Forms

naufragus (feminine naufraga, neuter naufragum); first/second-declension adjective[1] The form nāvifragus occurs only in the active sense “shipwrecking”.[2]

Etymology

It is a compound of nāvis (“ship”) and frangō (“to break”), for ⟨nāvifragus⟩.[3][2][1][4] De Vaan derives ⟨nāvis⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), probably “the floating one”, cognate with Sanskrit नौ (náu-, “ship”), Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”) and Old Irish náu (“ship”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro;[5] Köbler and the OLD start with Cicero, who says Africa saw Marius driven out and shipwrecked.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is shipwrecked, of people, bodies and ships, and of what belongs to a shipwreck, as Ovid's images of a wreck.[3][6] Actively it is causing shipwreck: Horace's “shipwrecking sea”.[3] As a noun it is a shipwrecked person,[3] and figuratively it means ruined.[1]

Church Latin has it for shipwrecked;[7] Medieval Latin used it for wasteful, a spendthrift.[8]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro.[5][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the shipwrecked Marius.[3][4]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a shipwrecking sea.[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. shipwrecked, wrecked; of or concerning shipwreck.[3][6][1][7]
  2. Causing shipwreck.[3][1]
  3. (figurative) Ruined.[1]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Wasteful.[8]

Noun

  1. A shipwrecked person, a castaway.[3][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill