Etymologically
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onyx

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔ.nyks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔː.niks][1]

Forms

onyx m (genitive onychis or onychos); third declension[1] It is masculine, but feminine in Pliny the Elder and Martial.[2][3] Manuscripts often spell it ⟨onix⟩, and sometimes ⟨honyx⟩.[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux, “nail, claw; onyx”),[2][5][1] the stone being named after the colour of a fingernail.[3] Köbler traces the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *h₃n̥gʷʰ- (“nail, claw”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Catullus, of a jar of onyx that pours out welcome offerings of perfume.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word named a prized stone, probably a kind of marble: Pliny the Elder says it was once thought to grow only in the mountains of Arabia and was first made into drinking cups, Lucan and Martial have floors of onyx, and Statius a temple adorned with it.[2][3] From the material it passed to a box or jar of onyx for ointments, as in Horace's “small onyx of nard” and in Propertius and Martial.[2][3]

Pliny also uses it for a many-coloured gem, describing black Arabian onyxes with white bands, and for a kind of razor shell.[2][3] Medieval glossaries keep the Greek sense “fingernail” or “claw”, and medieval writers credited the gem with powers, such as disturbing sleep.[8]

Timeline

  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of a jar of onyx holding perfume.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace mentions a small onyx box of nard.[2][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the marble, of a gem and of a shellfish.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial writes of floors of onyx.[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A prized stone, probably a kind of marble.[2][3]
  2. A box or jar of this stone, used for ointments.[2][3]
  3. A many-coloured gem, onyx.[2][3]
  4. A kind of razor shell.[2][3]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A fingernail, claw or hoof.[8]

Word family

  • onychinus

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 m n 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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  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