Etymologically
Log in

occiduus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 21:28. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔkˈkɪ.du.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [otˈt͡ʃiː.du.us][1]

Forms

occiduus (feminine occidua, neuter occiduum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin occidō2 (“to fall, set”) + -uus.[2][1][3] The grammarians Nonius and Eutyches also explain it from the verb, as “things that set”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid has it first,[4][3] of the setting sun: in the Metamorphoses he speaks of the shores warmed by the setting sun, occiduō quae lītora sōle tepēscunt.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The TLL notes that it was a poetic word from Ovid on, in Manilius, Seneca and Lucan, and in prose only once in Pliny the Elder, then in Gellius, Apuleius and later writers.[3] From the setting sun it passed to the evening hour and to the west, the quarter where the sun goes down: Ovid's occiduae aquae are the western sea and his oriēns occiduusque diēs east and west.[2][6] Figuratively it described what is sinking or nearing its end, such as old age in Ovid,[2][5] and in Christian poetry what is frail and perishable, as in Paulinus of Nola.[6][5]

Late writers used it as a noun for the west, as Isidore of Seville did.[6][7] In British medieval Latin it kept the senses of setting and western, and was applied to the western church;[8] Italian has it as occiduo.[5]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the setting sun, of the west and of declining old age.[2][4]
  • 1st century AD – Manilius uses it of setting heavenly bodies.[2][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it in prose of the setting sun and of the western winds.[2][4]
  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of the west and, as a noun, of a wind from the west.[2][4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it as a noun for the west.[6][4]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of the setting sun and of the western parts of the world.[8][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Going down, setting (of the sun and other heavenly bodies).[2][6]
  2. Of the time of sunset, of evening.[2]
  3. Drawing to a close, declining (of day, night or old age); liable to die.[2][5]
  4. Western, lying where the sun sets.[2][6]
  5. (Late Latin) Frail, perishable.[6][7]

Noun

  1. (Late Latin) The west.[6][7][9]

Word family

  • occidualis
  • inocciduus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b 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
  9. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier