Etymologically
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ortus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɔr.tʊs], [ˈɔr.tuːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔr.tus], [ˈɔr.tus][1]

Forms

ortus m (genitive ortūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from orior (“to rise”) with the suffix -tus.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *or-i- (“to rise”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₃r-i- (“to rise”), cognate with Umbrian ortom (“arisen”) and Hittite arai- (“to rise, lift”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is the Rhetorica ad Herennium.[5] Cicero speaks of the risings and settings of the stars, ortūs obitūsque.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is the rising of a star, above all sunrise and daybreak, and the springing up of a wind (Pliny the Elder).[2] From that it is the quarter where the sun rises, the east, sōlis ortus, and by metonymy the peoples of the East (Propertius).[2] It is also a beginning, birth or origin: Cicero calls the birth of a hermaphrodite a fateful portent, and speaks of the origin of the tyrant; of rivers it is their source.[2] Poets often use the plural for the singular.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “east, rising of the sun, origin, birth”.[6]

Timeline

  • 86/82 BC – Rhetorica ad Herennium.[5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the rising of the stars, the east and birth.[2][5]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius of the peoples of the East.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rising (of a star); sunrise, daybreak.[2][1][6]
  2. The east; the peoples of the East.[2][1][6]
  3. A beginning; birth; an origin, (of a river) the source.[2][1][6]

Word family

  • subortus

Usage notes

Ortus, -a, -um is also the past participle of orior, “risen, born, descended from”.[2][3][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson