octonus

Forms

octōnus (feminine octōna, neuter octōnum); first/second-declension numeral^[1] It is mostly plural, octōnī, -ae, -a; the singular is rare.^[2][3] Köbler also records the form octēnī.^[4] Manuscripts also spell it with ott- and -ten-.^[5]

Etymology

It is from Latin octō (“eight”) + -nus, the distributive numeral of the series “one each, two each…”.^[2][1][4] Priscian already lists it among the distributives.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][2] meaning “eight each”: in the Captivi others “dig out eight stones each” (alii octonos lapides ecfodiunt).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The distributive sense, “eight apiece”, runs through Classical prose: Varro has sows that can rear eight piglets each, Cicero a price of eight sesterces for each modius, and Livy eight thousand foot soldiers given to each praetor.^[2] From this it came to mean “eight at a time, in groups of eight”, as in Caesar's eight rows of the same kind and Pliny the Elder's fish that swims with eight fins.^[2][3]

Poets use it simply for “eight”, especially in multiplied numbers: Ovid counts “twice eight birthdays” (octonis iterum natalibus actis), and Statius uses bis octoni in the same way.^[2][3][6] The singular, found in an inscription,^[2] became more common in Late Latin, where Hilary of Poitiers writes octonus numerus for “the number eight”^[3][6] and Ausonius bis octono sub consule.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for “eight each”.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of piglets reared eight to a sow.^[2][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it for rows set eight at a time.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it in the multiplied number “twice eight”.^[2][4]
• c. 315–367/368 AD – Hilary of Poitiers uses the singular for “the number eight”.^[3][6][4]

Meanings

Numeral

1. (plural) Eight each, eight apiece.^[2][3]
2. (plural) Eight at a time, in groups of eight.^[2][7]
3. (poetic) Eight, especially in multiplied numbers such as bis octōnī, “sixteen”.^[2][3][1]
4. (singular, Late Latin) octōnus numerus, the number eight.^[3][6]

Word family

• octōnārius

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.