Etymologically
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pubes

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈpuː.beːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpuː.bes][1]

Forms

pūbēs f (genitive pūbis); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3] De Vaan considers Sanskrit पुमंस् (púmāṃs, “male, man”), and the Oxford Latin Dictionary and Wiktionary compare puer “boy”.[2][3][1] Walde–Hofmann thought the noun might be taken back from impūbēs “not having the signs of manhood”.[4] pūblicus took its /ū/ from it, though it comes from populus.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the adult population, the able-bodied men or a company, especially in poetry.[3][1] It was the age of puberty, as in Celsus, and the pubic region or the hair that appears at puberty, the sign of manhood, as in Celsus and Virgil.[3][6][7]

The adjective pūbēs, pūberis meant grown up or adult, from Cicero on, and of plants full of sap.[3][2] English pubes and pubis were borrowed from it in anatomy.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the adjective pūbēs “grown up”.[3][5]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the pubic hair.[6][5]
  • 1560s – English pubes is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The adult population, the youth, manpower.[3][1]
  2. Puberty.[3]
  3. The pubic region; the pubic hair.[3][6]

Word family

  • pūbertās
  • pūbēscō
  • impūbēs

References

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