Etymologically
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quadrupes

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkʷa.drʊ.peːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkʷaː.dru.pes][1]

Forms

quadrupēs (genitive quadrupedis); third-declension one-termination adjective[1] It is also spelled quadripēs.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound of quadri- (“four”) and pēs (“foot”).[2][3][4] Wiktionary takes it to be inherited from Proto-Italic *kʷetrupōts.[1] Umbrian has the same compound, Umbrian peturpursus (“to quadrupeds”), from ⟨*kwetur-pōd-⟩.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from the Twelve Tables.[4] The OLD's first citation is an old law on someone who wrongfully kills a slave or a four-footed beast, and Ennius' Annals has horsemen and elephants hurling themselves forward.[2]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means four-footed, as in Celsus' every four-footed animal born at home, and going on four legs: Ennius uses quadrupēs eques for cavalry, Ovid has a baby that soon goes on all fours, and Pliny the Elder satyrs that run now on four legs, now upright.[2] Apuleius uses it of a galloping pace.[2] As a noun it is a four-footed creature: Cicero calls someone the vilest servant not only of all two-footed but of all four-footed beings, and Livy has people eating the flesh of every kind of animal.[2] It often means a domestic animal, as in Lucretius and in Ulpian's law on damage done by animals,[2] and in poetry a horse: Virgil has a horse rearing and beating the air with its hooves.[2] Stelten gives "four-footed animal" for Church Latin.[6] English quadruped came from it through French in the 1640s.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables.[4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of cavalry.[2]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of domestic animals.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of all four-footed beings.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a rearing horse.[2]
  • 1640s – quadruped appears in English.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Four-footed, four-legged.[2][3][1]
  2. Going on four legs;[2][3][1] (of people) on all fours;[2][3][1] (of movement) galloping.[2][3][1]

Noun

  1. A four-footed creature, quadruped.[2][3][1][6]
  2. A domestic animal;[2] (poetic) a horse.[2]

Word family

  • quadrupedātim

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com