obsidianus

Forms

obsidiānus (feminine obsidiāna, neuter obsidiānum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is a faulty spelling, from Latin obsiānus, which is found more often than the correct form in the manuscripts of Pliny the Elder.^[2][3][4] The correct form is named after a man called Obsius, who according to Pliny discovered the stone in Ethiopia.^[3][5][4] Wiktionary instead gives the name as Obsidius.^[1] Greek ὀψιανός (opsianós) corresponds to the Latin word, and the TLL derives it from Latin.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It goes back to the manuscripts of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, in the 1st century AD, where the stone named after Obsius, a kind of obsidian, is often written with -sidi-.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short, Georges and the OLD treat the form as a false reading and give the word under obsiānus.^[4][5][3] It lived on in later learning: Bartholomaeus Anglicus counts the lapis obsidianus among the kinds of glass.^[6] English obsidian was taken from this misprint in the 1650s.^[8]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – The manuscripts of Pliny the Elder often spell the stone's name with -sidi-.^[2][7]
• 1650s – English borrows it as obsidian.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of obsidian;^[3][1][6][8] lapis obsidiānus, obsidian, a dark glassy stone (a faulty spelling of obsiānus).^[3][1][6][8]

Related words

• Obsius
• English obsidian

Usage notes

The OLD calls the form apparently erroneous for obsiānus, and Lewis & Short a false reading.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com