rostratus

Forms

rōstrātus (feminine rōstrāta, neuter rōstrātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rōstrum (“beak, snout”) + -ātus.^[2][1][3][4] De Vaan lists both among the derivatives of rōdō (“to gnaw”), which he traces to Proto-Italic *(w)rōde/o- and Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d-e/o- or *ureh₃d-e/o- (“to gnaw, furrow”); he calls the root etymology uncertain.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius,^[5] of a warship: trabes remis rostrata per altum (“the beaked ship, with its oars, over the deep”).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Cicero has a beaked warship caught in harbour,^[2][7] Horace beaked prows,^[2] and Livy and Tacitus beaked ships, among them those that guarded the coast of Gaul.^[2] Pliny the Elder says that geese fly with a beaked thrust, like Liburnian ships, cleaving the air more easily.^[2][7]

The columna rostrata was a column in the Forum adorned with the beaks of enemy ships taken in the First Punic War,^[2] put up for Duilius.^[8][6] The corona rostrata was a crown with small ships' beaks given to the first man to board an enemy ship;^[2][7] Virgil has Agrippa's temples gleaming with it.^[7][9] Columella and Pliny use the word of beak-shaped tools, hooked sickles and a kind of ploughshare.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a beaked warship.^[2][5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a warship.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil mentions the naval crown.^[7][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy mentions the columna rostrata.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of hooked sickles.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Beak-shaped, hooked at the end.^[2][7]
2. (of warships) Having a beaked prow;^[2][7] (feminine as a noun) a beaked warship.^[2][7]
3. columna rostrāta: a rostral column in the Forum.^[2][8]
4. corōna rostrāta: the naval crown.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.