oriens

Forms

oriēns m (genitive orientis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Used as a noun, it is the present participle from Latin orior (“to rise”), with sōl (“sun”) understood.^[2][3][4] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *or-i- (“to rise”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃r-i- (“to rise”).^[5] De Vaan compares Hittite arai- (“to rise, lift”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, of 81–43 BC,^[6] uses it in the speeches against Catiline for the east, when a statue of Jupiter is to be turned towards it.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The OLD gives the rising sun and daybreak first: Virgil writes of the place where the rising sun first breathes on us with panting horses.^[2] Virgil and Ovid also use it of the sun god.^[3][4] As a quarter of the sky it was qualified by the season, as with the summer and winter east in Pliny and Columella.^[3][2] Cicero already uses it for the eastern regions of the known world, where a legate had served for many years,^[2] the sense of English orient, which came through Old French in the late 14th century.^[7]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it also named the dawn and the rising sun, and as Oriēns the Messiah.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for the east and for the eastern regions of the world.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the rising sun and for the sun god.^[2][3][6]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, through Old French, as orient, the east.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rising sun; daybreak, dawn.^[2][9]
2. The sun god.^[3][4]
3. The quarter of the sky where the sun rises, the east; also as changing with the season (oriēns aestīvus, the summer east).^[2][3]
4. The eastern part of the known world or its peoples, the orient.^[2][9]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Oriēns, the Messiah.^[8]

Word family

• orientālis

Related words

• orior
• origo

Usage notes

The OLD treats the participle separately: of the sun and stars it means rising (Caesar writes of facing north and the rising sun), of the sky eastern, and of a period or activity just beginning.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press