Etymologically
Log in

oculus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 02:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɔ.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔː.ku.lus][1]

Forms

oculus m (genitive oculī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *ok(e)lo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃e/okʷ-(e)lo- (“eye”).[2][1] Most Indo-European languages have a root noun or an i-stem for “eye”, so de Vaan thinks the Latin form with its suffix was built within Italic.[2] Cognate with Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi, “eye”), Ancient Greek ὄσσε (ósse, “the two eyes”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉 (augō, “eye”) and English eye.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Livius Andronicus.[2][5] Plautus has “my eyes hurt because the smoke is troublesome”.[3] Köbler places Livius Andronicus before 200 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the eye as a part of the body and as the organ of sight, and sight itself.[3] Phrases include in oculīs “in sight”, ante oculōs “before one's eyes”, and ab oculīs “out of sight”.[3] Plautus even forms a superlative oculissimus “dearest apple of my eye”.[2] It was also a bud or eye on a plant, and the slit in the bark into which a bud was grafted, whence inoculō “to graft”.[3][6]

Döderlein contrasts faciēs and oculī, the face and eyes in a physical sense, with ōs and vultus, the face as the expression of feeling.[7] The Appendix Probi censures the syncopated oclus, the source of the Romance words.[8] In British medieval Latin in ictū oculī was “in the twinkling of an eye”.[9] Late Latin oculāris gave English ocular, inoculāre gave English inoculate, and oculus was borrowed in 1857.[6] It survives in Italian occhio, French œil and Spanish ojo.[1]

Timeline

  • before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus uses it.[2][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has eyes hurting from smoke.[3][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of losing the eye with which one saw well.[10][5]
  • mid-15th century – English inoculate is recorded, first of grafting.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The eye.[3]
  2. Sight, in oculīs, in sight, ab oculīs, out of sight.[3]
  3. A bud, eye (of a plant); the slit for a graft.[3][1]

Word family

  • ocellus
  • ocliferius
  • oculāris
  • oculārius
  • oculātus
  • oculeus
  • oculicrepida
  • oculissimus
  • oculitus
  • oculō
  • centoculus
  • lānoculus
  • oculāriārius
  • oculāriter
  • oculāta
  • English ocular
  • English inoculate
  • English binocular

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.