oceanus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [oːˈke.a.nʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [oˈt͡ʃɛː.a.nus]^[1]

Forms

ōceanus m (genitive ōceanī); second declension^[1] A neuter Ōceanum appears in Ampelius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὠκεανός (ōkeanós, “the great river surrounding the earth”), a word of unknown origin.^[2][1][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation for the ocean is from Ennius.^[2] Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was the ocean, which the ancients pictured as a sea flowing round the known lands, and in Cicero the Atlantic Ocean; and the god Oceanus, son of Uranus and Ge, husband of Tethys and father of the river gods, as in Accius.^[2][6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant ocean, sea.^[7] English ocean came through Old French occean about 1300.^[5]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it.^[2][4]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of the god.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the Atlantic.^[6][4]
• c. 1300 – English ocean is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ocean surrounding the lands; the Atlantic.^[2][6]
2. (mythology) The god Oceanus.^[2]

Related words

• mare
• English ocean

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson