ostrinus

Forms

ostrīnus (feminine ostrīna, neuter ostrīnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ostrum (“purple”) + -īnus.^[2][1] The noun ⟨ostrum⟩ is from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον (óstreon, “oyster”).^[2][1] The TLL compares colour adjectives of the same pattern such as murrinus and coccinus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in the comic poet Turpilius, quoted by Nonius, of a small purple veil (ostrinam riculam).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It was always a rare word, mostly of early and poetic Latin:^[4] Varro has a purple sail (supparum) in his Menippean satires, and Propertius a purple couch, a purple tunic and purple colours.^[2][4] Aulus Gellius cites it among the Latin colour names taken from the things that have the colour.^[2] Wiktionary describes the colour as a variety of Tyrian purple, probably the red one.^[1]

Timeline

• 2nd century BC – Turpilius speaks of a purple veil.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro has an ostrinum supparum.^[2][5]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of a couch, a tunic and colours.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius lists it among colour words.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Purple, of the colour of ostrum (a red variety of Tyrian purple).^[2][4][1]

Related words

• ostrum
• ostrea

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de