nebula

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈnɛ.bʊ.ɫa], [ˈnɛ.bʊ.ɫaː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈnɛː.bu.la], [ˈnɛː.bu.la]^[1]

Forms

nebula f (genitive nebulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *nefelā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ-e-lo- (“small cloud”), from the root *nebʰ-, which the TLL glosses “to be moist, cloudy”.^[2][3][1]

Cognate with Middle Welsh nyfel (“clouds”), Ancient Greek νεφέλη (nephélē, “cloud”), Old Norse nifl (“darkness, haze”) and Old High German nebul (“mist, fog”),^[2][4] and with Sanskrit नभस् (nábhas, “mist, sky”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[2][5] In the Amphitruo Plautus says that mist is made of breath and panting.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant mist or fog and, in poetry, a cloud, and Lucretius used it for clouds of dust and smoke.^[4][6] Ovid and Martial used it for a thin film, and Pliny the Elder for a sea creature that pearl divers dread.^[4] Figuratively it meant obscurity or a cloud of confusion, as in Gellius.^[4][6] Terence already has its derivative nebulo “good-for-nothing”.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it was also a wafer, including the host of the Mass.^[7][5][8] It survives as Romanian negură, Italian nebbia, Spanish niebla and Portuguese névoa.^[1] English took nebula for a cloud in the 15th century and, about 1730, for a cloudlike patch in the night sky.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for mist.^[4][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it for clouds of dust and smoke.^[4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a creature feared by pearl divers.^[4][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it for obscurity.^[4][5]
• 1098 – A Catalan charter uses it for wafers.^[8]
• c. 1730 – English uses nebula in astronomy.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mist, fog.^[4][10]
2. (poetic) A cloud; a cloud (of dust, smoke).^[4][6]
3. A thin film.^[4]
4. (figurative) Obscurity, confusion.^[4][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) A wafer; the host.^[7][5]
6. (New Latin) A nebula (in astronomy).^[1]

Word family

• nebulō
• nebulōsus

Related words

• imber
• nimbus
• English nebula
• English nebulous

Usage notes

Despite the likeness in sound and meaning, it is not related to nūbēs “cloud”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis Cataloniae (1960–; online ed. 2025), Barcelona: CSIC / Institució Milà i Fontanals, gmlc.imf.csic.es
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press