pluvius

Forms

pluvius (feminine pluvia, neuter pluvium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pluō (“to rain”) + -ius.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces pluō to Proto-Italic *plow-e/o- (“to rain”) and Proto-Indo-European *pleu-e/o- (“to swim, float”), used figuratively of pouring rain; he compares Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō, “to sail, swim”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL date it from the Twelve Tables, which deal with rainwater that does damage.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is of rain: ⟨aqua pluvia⟩ is rainwater, and Lucretius explains how rainy moisture gathers in high clouds.^[2][5] It is also rainy: Cato has rainy weather and Varro a rainy climate harmful to some crops.^[5][2] ⟨Pluvius arcus⟩ is the rainbow in Horace.^[2] Ovid has Danae conceiving Perseus from the golden rain.^[2] The TLL notes that it is rarer after Pliny the Elder; the Romance words for rain, such as lluvia and chuva, come from the feminine pluvia.^[3] Church Latin glosses it rainy.^[6]

Timeline

• Twelve Tables – of rainwater that does damage.^[4][3][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of rainy weather.^[5][7]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of rain in the clouds.^[2][7]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the rainbow.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of rain;^[2][5][1] aqua pluvia, rainwater.^[2][5][1]
2. Rainy, bringing rain;^[2][5][1][6] pluvius arcus, the rainbow.^[2][5][1][6]
3. Falling like rain.^[2]

Related words

• pluō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de