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reno

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reno1 swim back

Forms

renō (present infinitive renāre, perfect active renāvī); first conjugation, intransitive[1]

Etymology

The verb “swim back” is formed from Latin re- + nō (“to swim”).[1][2][3] De Vaan traces nō to Proto-Italic *(s)nāje/o- (“to swim”) and Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to swim, float”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Horace's Epodes (16.25), in an oath not to return until rocks, raised from the depths, float back to the surface;[2][5] the commentator Porphyrio explains the oath as never to return, since rocks will never float.[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short call the verb very rare.[5] Besides the Horace passage, the TLL records it in the Epicedion Drusi (432), where no shade has swum back across the Stygian waters.[2] A participle ⟨renatus⟩ printed by older editors in Augustine's City of God is, according to the TLL, a false reading.[2]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of rocks floating back up from the sea bed.[2][5][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To swim back.[1][5]
  2. (of things) To float back up, rise again to the surface.[5][7][8]

reno2 fur garment

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈreː.noː][9]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈrɛː.no][9]

Forms

rēnō m (genitive rēnōnis); third declension[9] Manuscripts of Caesar and Sidonius also spell it rhēnō.[2][10]

Etymology

The fur garment is apparently borrowed from Germanic, according to the OLD, which compares Irish rōin and Welsh rhawn.[1] The TLL also takes it as a Germanic word, for a garment made of lamb's fleece, from a word meaning “sheep, ram, lamb”, the initial /w/ being dropped in Latin.[2] Köbler refers it to Proto-Indo-European *u̯ₑren- (“ram, sheep, lamb”) and likewise takes it as a Germanic loan.[6] Lewis and Short and Georges call it a Celtic word,[5][7] and Wiktionary gives it a Celtic origin;[9] Varro already counted it among Gallic garments.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, in the De lingua Latina (5.167), lists it among Gallic items of dress.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Caesar says that the Germans wear skins or small coverings of rēnōnēs, leaving much of the body bare,[2][5] and Sallust that the Germans cover their otherwise naked bodies with them.[2][7] Servius, commenting on the Georgics, applies the word to the clothing of the Scythians,[2] and Sidonius uses it in describing the dress of Germans escorting a young prince.[2] Isidore of Seville defines rēnōnēs as coverings of the shoulders and chest down to the navel, so shaggy that they shed the rain.[5]

The OLD, with some hesitation, glosses it as a reindeer skin;[1] the TLL understands it as a garment of sheepskin.[2]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro names it as a Gallic garment.[5][2][6]
  • 86–34 BC – Sallust says the Germans cover their bodies with it.[2][7][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar describes the Germans wearing skins and small rēnōnēs.[2][6]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius applies it to the clothing of the Scythians.[2][6]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it of German dress.[2][6]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville describes it as a shaggy covering for the shoulders and chest.[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A reindeer skin, or a garment made from it.[1]
  2. A fur garment covering the shoulders and chest, worn by Germans and Gauls.[5][7][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
  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 g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.