Etymologically
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saetiger

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsae̯.tɪ.ɡɛr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛː.ti.d͡ʒer][1]

Forms

saetiger (feminine saetigera, neuter saetigerum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)[1] Also spelled sētiger.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin saeta (“bristle”) + -ger, with the second part from gerō (“to carry, bear”).[2][1][3] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *saitā- and Proto-Indo-European *séh₂i-to- (“cord”) (or *sh₂éi-to-); most handbooks connect it with a root meaning “to bind”, which Schrijver thinks unlikely in meaning, but de Vaan points out that this root has many words for “strap” and “cord”, and that “cord” could easily become “hair”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Lucretius,[6][5] who has saetigerīs subus ācre venēnumst, “it is a sharp poison to bristly swine”.[7][3]

Semantic evolution

A poetic word,[3] it is mostly an epithet of swine, in Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid,[3][8] and is also applied to a herd and, in inscriptions, to boars.[8][7] Ovid and Martial use the masculine as a noun, “the bristly one”, the wild boar,[3][8] as does Seneca: strāvit Ancaeum violentus ictū saetiger, “the savage boar struck Ancaeus down”.[2] Paulinus of Nola calls a garment of goats' hair saetigera vestis.[3][7]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of swine.[6][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Aeneid.[3][4][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the masculine as a noun for the boar.[2][3][6]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of a boar in the Medea.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it as a noun.[3][8][6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Bristly, covered with coarse hair or bristles.[2][3]
  2. (Late Latin) Of a garment, made of goats' hair.[3][7]

Noun

  1. (poetic) The wild boar.[2][3][8]

References

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