oestrus

Forms

oestrus m (genitive oestrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek οἶστρος (oîstros, “gadfly; frenzy”).^[1][2][3][4] Etymonline mentions a possible source in Proto-Indo-European *eis-, a root forming words for passion.^[5]

Ancient writers knew it was a Greek word: Virgil says the Greeks called the insect that the Romans named asilus by this name,^[4][6] and Servius comments that the word was Greek first.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil has it first,^[7][2] in the Georgics, for the gadfly that drives cattle in panic from the woods.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Seneca repeats that Romans called the insect asilus, and Pliny the Elder uses oestrus for large bees that drive the others out of the hive.^[2][4] Like its Greek source it came to mean a wild frenzy or passion: in the Ciris it drives Scylla to cut a lock from her father's head for the enemy, Seneca has Thyiads with limbs loosened by frenzy, and Statius and Juvenal use it of the frenzy of a poet or prophet.^[2][4] Jerome speaks of the frenzy of lust.^[8]

A neuter oestrum “madness” is given by Paulus' abridgement of Festus.^[2][4] Italian estro comes from it.^[9][1] English took it over in the 1690s for the gadfly, in 1850 for a frenzied passion and in 1890 for the heat of animals, the source of estrus.^[5]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the gadfly in the Georgics.^[2][7]
• 1st half of the 1st century AD – the Ciris uses it of a wild passion.^[2][7]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for the gadfly and for Bacchic frenzy.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for large bees that drive out the others.^[2][7]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of poetic frenzy.^[2][7]
• 1690s – English borrows it for the gadfly.^[5]
• 1890 – In English it takes the sense of sexual heat in animals.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gadfly, horsefly; also a large kind of bee.^[2][4]
2. A wild desire, passion, frenzy; the frenzy of a poet or prophet, inspiration.^[2][4][8]

Related words

• English estrus
• English oestrus

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier