nivosus

Forms

nivōsus (feminine nivōsa, neuter nivōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin nix (“snow”) + -ōsus (“full of”), built on the stem ⟨niv-⟩ of the oblique cases.^[2][1] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *sniks and Proto-Indo-European *snígʷʰs (“snow”).^[1] Cognate with Ancient Greek νίψ (níps) and Old Irish snechtae.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Ovid;^[3] his contemporary Livy has hiems gelida ac nivōsa, a cold and snowy winter.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is said mostly of places and of seasons full of snow:^[2] Ovid's snowy Strymon and Scythia, Columella's very cold and snowy places, and Livy's snowy hail.^[4][6] Of winds and constellations it meant bringing snow, as of a star group in Statius.^[2][5] British medieval writers used it for full of or covered with snow.^[7]

It lives on in Italian nevoso, Spanish nevoso and Romanian neios, and French borrowed it as nivôse.^[1][5]

Timeline

• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy speaks of a snowy winter.^[4][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls the Strymon and Scythia snowy.^[4][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella speaks of cold, snowy places.^[4][3]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of a snow-bringing constellation.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of snow, snowy (of places and seasons).^[2][4]
2. (of winds and constellations) Bringing snow.^[2][5]

Related words

• nix

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press