rugosus

Forms

rūgōsus (feminine rūgōsa, neuter rūgōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Comparative rūgōsior.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin rūga (“wrinkle”) + -ōsus.^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces rūga to Proto-Italic *roug-ā- and Proto-Indo-European *h1roug-h2- (“wrinkle”), most likely connected with ērūgō (“to belch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucilius,^[4] who speaks of wrinkled, withered old men: rugosi passique senes.^[2] Köbler dates it from Horace.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means full of wrinkles, folds or creases.^[2] It is used of persons and parts of the body, from age or other causes:^[2] Horace has wrinkled eunuchs, Ovid wrinkled cheeks, and Martial a woman whose brow is more wrinkled than her robe;^[3] a wrinkled forehead shows seriousness or disapproval.^[2] Poets extend it: Tibullus speaks of wrinkled old age and Horace of a village wrinkled with cold.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, of wrinkled old men.^[2][4][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of wrinkled eunuchs and a village wrinkled with cold.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of wrinkled cheeks.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of wrinkles, folds or creases, wrinkled.^[2][3][1]
2. Shrivelled.^[3][1]

Word family

• rugositas

Related words

• rūgō
• rūga
• ērūgō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de