Etymologically
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sanguinolentus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [saŋ.ɡʷɪ.nɔˈɫɛn.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [saŋ.ɡʷi.noˈlɛn.tus][1]

Forms

sanguinolentus (feminine sanguinolenta, neuter sanguinolentum); first/second-declension adjective[1] It is also spelled sanguinulentus,[2] and Scribonius has a shorter sanguilentus.[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin sanguis (“blood”) + -olentus (“full of”).[2][1] De Vaan traces sanguis to Proto-Italic *sangwen-; its first part may continue the oblique stem of the word for “blood”, Proto-Indo-European *h₁sh₂-én- (“blood”), while the second part is less certain.[4] Cognate with Hittite ešhar (“blood”), Sanskrit असृज् (ásṛj-, “blood”) and Ancient Greek ἔαρ (éar, “blood”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,[4] who speaks of bloody seditions.[2] Köbler dates it from Claudius Quadrigarius, who, as quoted by Gellius, has a man cut off a head, pull off the torque and put it, bloodstained, round his own neck.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It means covered with blood, bloodstained, and in medical writers fluor sanguinolentus is a discharge of blood.[2] Lewis & Short note that it is mostly poetic and not in Cicero;[3] Tibullus and Ovid use it.[3] It also means greedy for blood or cruel: Ovid says that no bloodthirsty line of Naso's exists.[2] Ovid uses it too of a colour, blood-red.[2]

Timeline

  • 1st century BC – Claudius Quadrigarius, of a bloodstained torque.[2][5]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro, of bloody seditions.[2][4][5]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of cruelty and of a blood-red colour.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Covered with blood, bloodstained, bloody;[2][3][1] accompanied by bloodshed.[2]
  2. Greedy for blood, cruel.[2]
  3. Blood-red, crimson.[2][1]

Word family

  • sanguinolentia

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 i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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