saetosus

Forms

saetōsus (feminine saetōsa, neuter saetōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled sētōsus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin saeta (“bristle”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][4][5] De Vaan traces saeta to Proto-Italic *saitā- and Proto-Indo-European *séh₂i-to- (“cord”) or *sh₂éi-to-; most handbooks derive it from the root “to bind”, a link Schrijver finds very doubtful, but de Vaan points to the many derivatives of that root meaning “strap” or “cord”, from which a meaning “hair” could easily arise.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler finds it first in Virgil,^[4] who in the Eclogues speaks of the head of a bristly boar (saetosi caput apri).^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it mostly poetic.^[3] Horace uses it of the bristly limbs of the companions of Ulysses whom Circe turned into swine, and of a shaggy forehead;^[3] Celsus of a hairy chest and Pliny the Elder of a bull's ears.^[3][8] Propertius has saetosa verbera, whips of hairy hide.^[3][9][7]

In British Medieval Latin Aldhelm uses it of the fleeces of wethers, and the Liber monstrorum of the shaggy heads and bodies of monsters; it was also said figuratively of bristling invective.^[10] It survives in Italian setoso and French soyeux, and English borrowed it as setose.^[1]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a bristly boar.^[3][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the limbs of men turned into swine.^[3][4]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of whips of hairy hide.^[3][9][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a hairy chest.^[3][8][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a bull's ears.^[3][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of the fleeces of wethers.^[10][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bristly, covered with bristles.^[2][3]
2. shaggy, hairy (of people and parts of the body).^[2][3][9]
3. Made of hairy hide (of whips).^[3][9]
4. (Medieval Latin, figurative) Bristling, cutting (of invective).^[10]

Related words

• saetiger
• English setose

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press