quadriiugus

Forms

quadriiugus (feminine quadriiuga, neuter quadriiugum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] A third-declension form quadriiugis also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin quadri- (“four-”) + iugus (“yoked, combined”).^[2][4] De Vaan lists it with biiugus (“yoked in pairs”) among the numeral compounds of iugus, an o-stem derivative of the root of iungō (“to join, yoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *iug-o- (“yoked”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Ennius on,^[4][5] in a tragic line: vīdī … Hectorem currū quadriiugō raptārier, “I saw Hector dragged by a four-horse chariot”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is mainly a poetic word.^[6] Pacuvius and Virgil use it of chariots,^[7][2] and Ovid, Manilius and Curtius of horses yoked four abreast.^[2][3] Statius applies it to a chariot race.^[2] As a masculine plural noun, quadriiugī means a team of four horses, in Ovid, Statius and Silius Italicus.^[2][7] Medieval glosses render it with the Old High German word for “four-yoked”.^[5]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a four-horse chariot.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil writes in the Georgics of driving a hundred four-horse chariots.^[2][5]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses the plural quadriiugī for a team of four.^[2][5]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of a chariot race.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of a chariot) Drawn by four horses yoked abreast.^[2][7]
2. (of a race) Run with four-horse chariots.^[2][3]
3. (of horses) Yoked four abreast.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (masculine plural) A team of four chariot horses, a quadriga.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn