osseus

Forms

osseus (feminine ossea, neuter osseum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin os² (“bone”) + -eus.^[2][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of ⟨os⟩, which goes back to Proto-Italic *ost and Proto-Indo-European *h₃o/est- (“bone”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on.^[3] In the Cistellaria it describes thin, feverish girlfriends as all bone, the sense of “emaciated”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the literal sense of “made of bone” the comic poet Atta has a stylus with a bone point,^[2][4] Ovid calls a skeleton an ossea forma, and Columella speaks of bone wedges and knives.^[2] It was also said of things as hard as bone: Pliny the Elder uses it of the wood of some palms and of the holm oak.^[2][5] Juvenal keeps the old sense of “bony, skinny” for a Moor's hand.^[2]

English took it in the early 15th century as ossuous and ossous, through a Medieval Latin form, and re-formed it in the 1680s as osseous.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of thin, bony girlfriends.^[2][7]
• early 1st century BC – The comic poet Atta speaks of a bone point.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls a skeleton an ossea forma.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of wood as hard as bone.^[2][7]
• early 15th century – English borrows it, through Medieval Latin, as ossuous and ossous.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of or consisting of bone.^[2][5]
2. Hard as bone, bone-like.^[2][5]
3. Consisting of bone rather than flesh, emaciated.^[2]

Related words

• os²
• English osseous

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de