saltuosus

Forms

saltuōsus (feminine saltuōsa, neuter saltuōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin saltus² (“forest pass, woodland pasture”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3] The suffix forms adjectives meaning “full of”, so the word describes country full of wooded valleys and glades.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Sallust,^[5][4] who uses it of wooded terrain in the Jugurtha (loca saltuosa).^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it remained a word for terrain: Livy, Nepos, Tacitus and Pliny the Elder apply it to places, regions and valleys covered with woods and glens.^[4][6] Ammianus Marcellinus still writes of travelling per saltuōsōs trāmitēs, by paths through the forest.^[4]

Medieval writers in Britain, among them William of Malmesbury and Orderic Vitalis, used it of heavily wooded country, often with a suggestion of wild and untamed land.^[7]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust describes wooded ground with it.^[4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it in his history.^[4][3][5]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos applies it to a region.^[6][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it in the Annals.^[4][5]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of forest paths.^[4][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of terrain) Full of wooded valleys and glades; well-wooded, woody.^[2][4][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) Heavily wooded and wild.^[7]

References

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