parra

Forms

parra f (genitive parrae); first declension^[1] A masculine parrus occurs in the Latin Anthology and in Aldhelm.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *parVsā-, which also gave Umbrian parfam (“a certain bird”), an accusative.^[4] The further origin is uncertain.^[4][3] De Vaan derives the Proto-Italic form from an earlier Proto-Indo-European *pHr-Vs- or Proto-Indo-European *prHV-s-, perhaps an s-less variant of Proto-Indo-European *sprH-, found mainly in words for the sparrow; since none of these words matches exactly, he leaves the question open, and adds that, like other bird names, they could be loans from a non-Indo-European language.^[4] Höfler proposes instead a substantivized possessive adjective Proto-Indo-European *(s)pr̥h₂sós.^[1]

Compare Cornish frau and Breton frao “crow”, Ancient Greek σποργίλος (sporgílos, “sparrow”), Old Prussian spurglis (“sparrow”), Old English spearwa, Old High German sparo and Old Norse spǫrr, all of them birds' names.^[4] The OLD also compares ψάρ (psár, “starling”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][6] as a bird of omen: in the Asinaria “the woodpecker and the crow on the left, the raven and the parra on the right” urge a plan on (picus et cornix ab laeva, corvus, parra ab dextera consuadent).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Its cry was thought ill-omened: Horace wishes on the wicked the omen of the shrieking parra (impios parrae recinentis omen ducat).^[7][3] Festus lists it with the raven, the crow, the owl and the woodpecker among the birds that give omens by their voice, and Hyginus calls it the bird of Vesta, as the woodpecker is that of Mars.^[3] Petronius has the proverb malam parram pilare, literally “to pluck a bad parra”, that is, to have bad luck.^[5][8] Pliny the Elder and Prudentius also mention it.^[2][3]

Which bird it was is not known: the suggestions include an owl (the barn owl), the lapwing, the green woodpecker and the nightjar.^[5][7][3] It survives in dialects of Italy and southern France.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus names it among birds of omen.^[7][3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace calls its cry an evil omen.^[7][3][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has the proverb malam parram pilare.^[5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions it.^[2][6]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius mentions it among birds of omen.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bird whose cry was an ill omen, perhaps an owl or the lapwing.^[5][7]
2. malam parram pilāre: to have bad luck.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e 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 e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier