sanies

Forms

saniēs f (genitive saniēī); fifth declension^[1] Only the nominative, accusative and ablative singular are found in quotations.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain: the OLD calls it unknown, and Köbler too.^[2][3] De Vaan considers a derivative in ⟨-iēs⟩ from the stem ⟨*san-⟩ of sanguis (“blood”), though the type rather suggests an abstract made from a verb;^[4] Klingenschmitt's reconstruction is from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sh₂en-ih₂- (“blood-like matter”).^[4] Wiktionary likewise derives it from the oblique stem of Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”), and Lewis & Short called it a weakened form of the word for blood.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Ennius,^[4][3] who has rocks spattered with gore, saniēs and black blood.^[2][5] Cato, of the same time, says that a black cancer smells and discharges foul matter.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the watery matter that comes from a wound or ulcer, or from the wounds of the newly killed.^[2][5] Celsus sets it between blood and pus: thinner than blood, of varying thickness, sticky and coloured, while pus is the thickest and whitest.^[5] Döderlein contrasts it, as running and offensive matter, with pūs, matter that corrodes.^[6] Virgil, Ovid and Tacitus use it of gore.^[5] It is also used of other fluids: the venom of snakes in Virgil and Ovid, the slaver of Cerberus in Horace, the juice of the purple fish and the watery part of olives in Pliny the Elder, and the fermented juice of tunnies in Manilius.^[5][2] Stelten gives "matter, pus".^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of discharge from a cancer.^[2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of gore on rocks.^[2][4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a serpent's venom.^[5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus distinguishes it from blood and pus.^[5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the juice of the purple fish.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Watery, bloody matter from a wound or ulcer, sanies; gore, pus.^[2][5][1][7]
2. Other fluids: venom, slaver; the juice of fish or olives.^[2][5]

Word family

• exsaniō
• saniōsus

Related words

• sanguīs
• pūs

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson