pharetratus

Forms

pharetrātus (feminine pharetrāta, neuter pharetrātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The second syllable is found short, and also long by position, from Virgil on.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin pharetra (“quiver”) + -ātus.^[3][1][4] The noun is a borrowing of Ancient Greek φαρέτρα (pharétra, “quiver”);^[3][5][1] Köbler compares Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Virgil.^[4] Virgil uses it of the neighbourhood of quivered Persia (pharetrātae vīcīnia Persidis) in the Georgics and of Camilla in the Aeneid.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic.^[6] Horace uses it of the Geloni, Ovid of a boy, Cupid, and of a maiden, Diana, and Juvenal of Semiramis.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the Persians and of Camilla.^[6][2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the Geloni.^[6][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of Cupid and Diana.^[6][4]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of Semiramis.^[6][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Equipped with or wearing a quiver.^[3][6][1]

Related words

• pharetra
• pharetriger

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press