Etymologically
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pulverulentus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pʊɫ.wɛ.rʊˈɫɛn.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pul.ve.ruˈlɛn.tus][1]

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]
  • 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