rubor

Forms

rubor m (genitive rubōris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rubeō + -or, from the verb “to be red”.^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of ruber (“red”), which goes back to Proto-Italic *ruþro- (“red”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰ-ró- (“red”), cognate with Umbrian rufru (“red”), Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá, “red, bloody”) and Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós, “red”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Accius,^[4] who has eyes gleaming with a flaming redness.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is redness of every shade, as Cicero's red mixed with white, and of the complexion, sometimes as a sign of health, as Ovid's fair skin suffused with rosy red.^[2][3] It is also the redness of inflammation or fever, as in Ovid's plague, and of a face red with anger in Gellius.^[2] Specifically it is a blush from shame or modesty, as Cicero's “so that a blush follows shame”, then the feeling of shame itself, as Livy's consul who came through the crowd of women not without some shame, and the capacity to blush, modesty.^[2][1] By metonymy it is what causes shame, disgrace, as Cicero's censor whose verdict brings nothing but disgrace.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “shame”.^[5]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of eyes gleaming red.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a blush following shame and of disgrace.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a feeling of shame.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a rosy complexion and of fever.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Redness; a red complexion; the redness of inflammation or anger.^[2][3][1]
2. A blush of shame or modesty.^[2][1]
3. A feeling of shame; modesty.^[2][1][5]
4. That which causes shame, disgrace.^[2][1]

Related words

• rubēdō
• rubefaciō
• rubellus
• rubēns
• rubeō
• ruber
• rubēscō
• rubicundus
• pudor

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de