pruinosus

Forms

pruīnōsus (feminine pruīnōsa, neuter pruīnōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *prus-u̯o- (“sprinkling, drop”), through a development *prusu̯īna > *pruwīna.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Ovid on,^[3][5] who has it seven times, for instance of grass covered with frost in the Metamorphoses and of a frosty night in the Amores.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Ovid calls the axle of the Dawn's chariot pruīnōsus, the frosty morning,^[6][7] and Vitruvius has the word once.^[3] Columella uses it of a frosty state of the sky,^[6] and Petronius in verse of thin, cold clothes that give no warmth.^[6][7] It has no comparative or superlative.^[3]

Medieval British writers used it of what looks like frost: in one of Aldhelm's riddles a sieve pours out frosty white flour; it also meant covered with frost.^[8]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of frosty grass and a frosty night.^[3][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the weather.^[6][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of clothes that give no warmth.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with hoarfrost, frosty, rimy.^[2][6]
2. (figurative) Cold, giving no warmth.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) Like frost.^[8]
4. (New Latin) Frosted, as a taxonomic epithet.^[1]

Related words

• pruīna

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ 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