ruga

Forms

rūga f (genitive rūgae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *rougā, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁roug-h₂- (“wrinkle”).^[2][1] De Vaan connects it most readily with ērūgō (“to belch”), since words for wrinkles and creases often come from a verb “to be rough”, which also gives verbs for belching.^[2] A connection with runcō (“to weed”) and Lithuanian raũkas (“wrinkle”), which the OLD compares, is not directly possible because the consonants differ.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Titinius,^[2] the OLD's first example of a wrinkle of old age.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a crease or wrinkle in the skin, usually in the plural: of old age, as Cicero's “neither white hair nor wrinkles can suddenly seize authority”, and of frowning, as Varro's furrowing of the brow.^[3][4] Pliny the Elder uses it of creases on pepper dried in the sun and of the grooves of horns.^[3]

In medieval texts it came to mean a track, a street, a row of houses or a quarter of a town.^[5][1] Church Latin glosses it “wrinkle”.^[6]

Timeline

• late 2nd–early 1st century BC – Titinius of wrinkles of old age.^[3][2]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of frowning.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the wrinkles of old men.^[4][7]
• Middle Ages – A street or road.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wrinkle in the skin, of old age or frowning.^[3][4][1]
2. A crease, fold; a shallow groove.^[3][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A track, road; a street; a row of houses, a quarter.^[5][1]

Word family

• corrugis
• rūgō
• rūgōsus

Related words

• ērūgō

Usage notes

Rūga was also a Roman surname: Spurius Carvilius Ruga's divorce was said to be the first in Rome.^[4][1]

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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de