Etymologically
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patrius

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpa.tri.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpaː.tri.us][1]

Forms

patrius (feminine patria, neuter patrium, adverb patriē); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *patrijo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tr-iHo- (“of a father”), from pater “father”.[2][3][1][4] Servius notes that it can come from ⟨pater⟩ as well as patria “native land”.[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit पित्र्य (pítrya, “paternal, ancestral”) and Ancient Greek πάτριος (pátrios, “paternal, hereditary”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[2] who has postquam recesset vīta patriō corpore, “after life had left my father's body”.[3] Köbler cites it from Ennius.[4]

Semantic evolution

Patrius means “of a father, a father's”, “fatherly, paternal” (Terence: hoc patriumst, “this is a father's way”, nōmen patrium, the name of father), and “inherited from one's fathers, ancestral” (ancestral altars).[3][6][1] It also means “belonging to one's native land, native”, as in patrius sermō, one's native tongue.[3][6] Grammarians called the genitive the cāsus patrius.[3]

Döderlein says paternus is what belongs to and comes from a father, patrius what belongs to and comes from one's ancestors or native country.[7] Church Latin glosses it “of a father, paternal, ancestral, native”.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: vīta patriō corpore.[3][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius: cui nec ārae patriae domī stant, “who has no ancestral altars standing at home”.[3][4]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence: hoc patriumst.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: patrius sermō.[6][4]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius uses patrius cāsus for the genitive.[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. A father's, of a father.[3][6][1][8]
  2. Fatherly, paternal.[3][6][1][8]
  3. Inherited, ancestral, hereditary.[3][1][8]
  4. Of one's native land, native.[3][6][8]
  5. cāsus patrius, the genitive case.[3]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  8. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson