orca
orca1 sea mammal
Pronunciation
Forms
orca f (genitive orcae); first declension[1]
Etymology
The sea animal is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὄρυγα (óruga), the accusative of ὄρυξ (órux), the name of a kind of whale, with ⟨c⟩ for ⟨g⟩ probably under the influence of orca “jar”.[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead takes the jar word as the source and the whale sense as influenced by órux.[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first found in Pliny the Elder, who calls the orca a beast hostile to whales.[2][4]
Semantic evolution
It named a large sea mammal, probably the grampus,[2] a kind of whale.[5][6] Festus, as Paul the Deacon reports him, called the orca the largest kind of sea beast.[5][7] English took it over as orca, the killer whale, by 1841.[8]
Timeline
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the orca as an enemy of whales.[2][4]
- by 1841 – English adopts it as orca for the killer whale.[8]
Meanings
Noun
orca2 jar
Pronunciation
Forms
orca f (genitive orcae); first declension[1]
Etymology
The jar is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕρχη (húrkhē, “earthen vessel for salting fish”),[2][1][4] a technical word that Pollux calls Aeolic.[9] Beekes notes that the Latin word may be borrowed from Greek or that both languages may have taken it separately from a Mediterranean language.[9][1] Georges connects it with urceus “pitcher”, which Beekes derives from it.[6][9]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first found in Varro, who writes of jars in Spain burst by the fermenting of new wine.[2][6]
Semantic evolution
It was a large, narrow-necked earthenware jar for must, figs or salted fish:[2][6] Horace speaks of brine that stank in a Byzantine jar, Columella of storing figs in well-pitched jars.[2] Ancient grammarians thought the fig jars were named after the sea beast, which they resembled in shape.[5][7] The jar was also used in a kind of throwing game, in Pomponius and Persius;[2] Gaffiot and Conte take it there as a dice box.[10][11] In the Historia Augusta it is a measure.[6]
Italian orca continues it.[11]
Timeline
- 116–27 BC – Varro mentions jars burst by fermenting wine.[2][4]
- 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of a Byzantine jar of brine.[2][4]
- 34–62 AD – Persius mentions the narrow neck of the jar in a game.[2][4]
Meanings
Noun
- A large narrow-necked earthenware jar or butt, for wine, figs or salted fish.[2][5][6]
- A jar used as the target in a throwing game, or a dice box.[2][10]
Word family
- orcula
- urceus
Related words
- English orca
Usage notes
Orca was also a Roman surname, such as Valerius Orca, named in Cicero's letters.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier