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pontus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word pontus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
204–169 BC, Ennius
Borrowed from
Ancient Greek πόντος
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (πόντος)

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɔn.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɔn.tus][1]

Forms

pontus m (genitive pontī); second declension[1] Servius notes that Latin does not use it in the plural.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πόντος (póntos, “sea”).[3][1][4][5] Köbler and Etymonline connect the Greek word with Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to tread, go”), the root of pōns (“bridge”).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius: mulserat hūc nāvem … pontus, “the sea had drawn the ship here”.[4] Köbler first records it in Virgil.[5]

Semantic evolution

Pontus is a poetic word for the sea (Lucretius, Virgil: pontus Libyae), and also a wave.[3][4][1] Döderlein says that aequor, pelagus and pontus name the sea with reference to its extent, while mare is the sea as a mass of water.[7] As a name, Pontus (also Pontus Euxīnus) is the Black Sea (Cicero), the lands round it (Ovid, in exile: ut sumus in Pontō), the kingdom of Mithridates, and the Roman province of Bithynia and Pontus.[3][4][1]

Church Latin glosses it “sea, ocean, the deep”.[8] English Pontus names the region on the Black Sea.[6]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius: mulserat hūc nāvem … pontus.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of rivers flowing into the Pontus.[3][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil: pontus Libyae.[4][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid: ut sumus in Pontō.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (poetic) The sea, the deep.[3][4][1][8]
  2. A wave.[1]

Proper noun

  1. Pontus, the Black Sea.[3][4][1]
  2. Pontus, the region round the Black Sea; the kingdom and Roman province of Pontus.[3][1]

Word family

  • pontivagus

References

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

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pontus.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/pontus. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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