pulverulentus

Forms

pulverulentus (feminine pulverulenta, neuter pulverulentum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pulvis (“dust”) + -ulentus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs pulvis as Proto-Italic *pe/olaw(-is)- (“dust”) and reports the derivation, in Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny, from ⟨*pelH-u-⟩ “chaff”, seen in Sanskrit पलाव (palā́va-, “chaff, husk”) and Lithuanian pẽlūs (“chaff”).^[4] Servius explains it as full of dust, as one says vīnolentus for full of wine.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Laevius.^[5] Varro compares bees that are hairy and rough to dusty ones,^[2] and Cicero writes of a hot and dusty road.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is covered with or full of dust: Lucretius has dusty Ceres, Virgil a dusty summer, dusty columns of hunters and the Rutulians' dusty flight,^[2][6][7] and Seneca says that of two equally good men one prefers the neat and anointed to the dusty and unkempt.^[2] Quintilian notes that not everyone who is dusty has come from a journey.^[2] Figuratively it is what costs toil: Ovid has the dusty prizes of soldiering, and Seneca a dusty, toiling virtue.^[2][6] Scribonius Largus uses it of particles that stay gritty.^[2]

Timeline

• 2nd/1st century BC – Laevius has the word.^[5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of dusty bees.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a dusty road.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, of a dusty summer.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of the toilsome prizes of war.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Covered with or full of dust, dusty; raising dust.^[2][6][1]
2. Like specks of dust, gritty.^[2]
3. (figurative) Toilsome, won with toil.^[2][6][1]

Related words

• pulvis
• pulverō
• English pulverulent

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 l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn