scarus

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈska.rʊs]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈskaː.rus]^[1]

Forms

scarus m (genitive scarī); second declension^[1] Ennius has the form scārus with a long a.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκάρος (skáros, “a sea fish”).^[3][4][1][2] Köbler compares the Greek word with the root Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to move, leap”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Georges record it first in Ennius,^[5][6] in a line that Apuleius quotes.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It names a sea fish much prized by the Romans,^[2] which the OLD identifies as the parrot-wrasse and Georges as the common parrotfish.^[3][6] Horace mentions it twice, and Pliny the Elder, Columella and Martial also write of it;^[2] Suetonius mentions the livers of these fish.^[2][6] Caelius Aurelianus uses the word, and an inscription shows four of the fish as a picture.^[6] Medieval writers in Britain still use it, also in the spelling scaurus, of a fish that tries to escape from a wicker trap, and a later word list glosses it as the gilthead.^[7] It survives as Italian scaro and Spanish escaro, was borrowed as French scare, and serves as the scientific name of the parrotfish genus Scarus.^[1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius names the fish in a line quoted by Apuleius.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions it in the Satires and Epodes.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder writes about it.^[2][6][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius mentions the livers of these fish.^[2][5]
• Medieval Latin – British writers use it of a fish caught in a trap.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sea fish prized as food, the parrot-wrasse or parrotfish.^[3][2][6]
2. (Medieval Latin) A fish glossed as the gilthead.^[7]

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 k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
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 d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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