Etymologically
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orbis

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈɔr.bɪs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔr.bis][1]

Forms

orbis m (genitive orbis); third declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin is much disputed.[2] De Vaan follows Weiss in deriving it from Proto-Italic *orfi- (“wheel”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃orbʰ-i- (“turning thing”), from a root *h₃erbʰ- “to turn” that he finds in the verb Hittite harp- (“to change sides, join”).[2][1] orbita “wheel track” and Umbrian urfeta, an object a priest holds, may go back to the same Italic form.[2] Klingenschmitt instead connected it with Sanskrit अर (ará, “spoke of a wheel”), which de Vaan finds less attractive.[2] The OLD calls it doubtful, and Köbler unclear.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato, who lists a bronze pan among farm equipment.[2][4][3] Köbler dates Cato 234–149 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It was any disc-shaped object, such as a tray or pan, a wheel, a round fish, then a circle, the discs of the sun and moon, a globe, the eyeball, a ring or hoop, a circuit, and soldiers drawn up in a ring.[3] Orbis terrārum “the circle of lands” was the inhabited world, which the ancients pictured as surrounded by the ocean, and orbis alone came to mean a region or the world.[3] It was also rotation and the path of a heavenly body.[3] Isidore says the world is called orbis from its roundness, like a wheel.[5]

The Appendix Probi corrects the popular form orbs to orbis.[6] In medieval Latin it could be the territory of a city.[7] English orb came from it in the mid-15th century, and orbita gave English orbit, first the eye socket, in the late 14th century.[8]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato lists a bronze pan (orbis) on a farm.[3][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a wheel.[3][4]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore derives the name of the world from its roundness.[5][4]
  • mid-15th century – English orb is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A disc; a tray, a pan.[3]
  2. A wheel.[3]
  3. A circle; the disc of the sun or moon.[3]
  4. A sphere, globe; the eyeball.[3]
  5. A ring, hoop; a circuit; soldiers in a ring.[3]
  6. orbis terrārum, the inhabited world; a region.[3]
  7. Rotation; the orbit of a heavenly body.[3]
  8. (Medieval Latin) The territory of a city.[7]

Word family

  • orbiculus
  • orbīle
  • orbita
  • orbītus
  • sēmiorbis
  • English orb
  • English orbit

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes orbis, a circular motion or the line it describes, from circulus, a flat circle, and gȳrus, a curving movement.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper