Etymologically
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papae

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [paˈpae̯][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [paˈpɛː][1]

Forms

papae (interjection)[2] Manuscripts often write it pape.[3]

Etymology

The OLD and Lewis and Short equate it with Greek, so that it is borrowed from Ancient Greek παπαῖ (papaî).[2][4] Wiktionary takes it as an onomatopoeic interjection shared by the languages of the Mediterranean, cognate with the Greek one, and compares babae.[1] The grammarian Audax already noted its Greek origin.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus,[2][3] where it voices pain or alarm, astonishment or delight; in the Stichus a character cries papae! dūcam hodiē amīcam, “wow! I'll take a girlfriend today”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The TLL finds it in the comic poets (Plautus, Terence, Afranius), in Varro and Persius and in a few later writers, besides the grammarians and scholiasts, who list it among interjections of joy and, now and then, of pain.[3] Terence uses it for surprise, also ironically,[2] and Persius in a mocking question.[2][4] Jerome still uses it in a letter.[5]

Medieval British writers kept it as a cry of amazement: in Osbern's life of Dunstan a speaker exclaims how quick someone is to pity the wretched, and Fortescue uses it to introduce his own surprise.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for pain, alarm, astonishment and delight.[2][7]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it for astonishment and ironic surprise.[2][7]
  • 34–62 AD – Persius uses it.[2][7]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it in a letter.[5][7]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. Expressing pain or alarm: oh dear![2][8]
  2. Expressing astonishment: wow!, well I never!, also ironically.[2][4][5]
  3. Expressing delight: hurrah![2]

Usage notes

Grammarians disagreed about its sound: one held that the first vowel was long, another called the word an iamb, and several put the accent on the second syllable.[3] In manuscripts it is sometimes confused with babae and with papa.[3]

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 l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier