noverca

Forms

noverca f (genitive novercae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a derivative of novus (“new”), “the new one”, with an unclear suffix.^[2][1][3] The OLD suggests an extended stem ⟨*nouer-⟩, comparing Ancient Greek νεαρός (nearós, “young”),^[4] and Wiktionary compares Old Armenian նոր (nor, “new”),^[1] but de Vaan argues that a stem ⟨*neur-⟩ would have given Latin ⟨*nūr-⟩, so that the word is probably a recent Latin formation.^[2] ⟨Novus⟩ goes back to Proto-Italic *nowo- and Proto-Indo-European *néwos (“new”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler give Plautus as its first author.^[2][5] In the Pseudolus to complain “to a stepmother” is to speak to deaf ears.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a stepmother, as Cicero's woman who was at once mother-in-law, stepmother and rival, and Phaedra, whom Hippolytus' father suspected him of loving.^[3] It most often alludes to the cruelty and hostility traditionally ascribed to stepmothers: Horace's victim asks why his tormentor glares at him like a stepmother, Ovid's Hypsipyle fears Medea as a stepmother, and Quintilian speaks of stepmothers crueller than those of tragedy.^[4][3] Figuratively nature itself is a harsh stepmother to man in Pliny the Elder, and Velleius calls Italy the stepmother of those not born there.^[4][3] Land surveyors used the plural novercae for poorly draining ditches and rough ground.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in a proverb.^[4][2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a stepmother.^[3][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a stepmother's hostile look.^[4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of nature as a stepmother.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stepmother.^[4][1][3]
2. (figurative) A harsh, hostile stepmother; a land to which one is a stranger.^[4][1][3]
3. (plural, surveying) Ditches that drain badly; rough ground.^[3]

Word family

• novercālis
• novercor

Related words

• novus
• vītricus
• prīvignus

Usage notes

Apud novercam querī, “to complain to a stepmother”, is a proverb for complaining in vain.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de