pluvialis

Forms

pluviālis (neuter pluviāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pluvia (“rain”) + -ālis;^[2][1] the TLL derives it from pluvius (“rainy”) or pluvia and compares fluviālis.^[3] The noun is the feminine of the adjective, from pluō (“to rain”),^[4][1] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Indo-European *pleu-e/o- (“to swim, float”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in Virgil's Georgics, of the rain-bringing south winds of spring.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In verse it is found in Virgil, Ovid, Germanicus and Lucan and again from Avienus on; in prose it begins with Celsus and Columella and is commonest in writers on medicine and farming.^[3] It meant consisting of rain, especially in aqua pluviālis, rainwater, in Celsus and Seneca;^[2][7] produced by rain, as in Ovid's fungi sprung from rain and his torrent swollen with rainwater;^[2][8] and rainy or bringing rain, of winds, of the constellation of the Kids and of days.^[2][8][7] Manuscripts often confuse it with pluviātilis.^[3]

In British medieval sources it meant rain- and rainy, as in Bede of December, and also protecting from rain; as a neuter noun it was a rain cloak.^[9] Among its Romance descendants the TLL lists Italian piviale, a priest's vestment, and Old French ploviel, a rain-bringing wind.^[3] English took pluvial in the 1650s through French.^[4]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of rain-bringing winds.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a rain-swollen torrent and of fungi produced by rain.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it in prose for rainwater.^[3][7][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses aqua pluviālis.^[8][6]
• 1650s – English borrows pluvial through French.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Consisting of rain;^[2][8] aqua pluviālis, rainwater.^[2][8]
2. Produced by rain; swollen with rain.^[2][10]
3. Rainy, bringing rain.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) Protecting from rain; as a neuter noun, a rain cloak.^[9]

Related words

• impluvium
• pluvia
• pluviāticus
• pluviātilis
• pluviōsus
• pluvius
• English pluvial

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.