scorpius

Forms

scorpius m (genitive scorpiī or scorpī); second declension^[1] The Greek form scorpios (accusative scorpion) is common in poetry, as in Lucilius, Cicero, Horace and Lucan; the OLD enters the word under it.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκορπίος (skorpíos, “scorpion”).^[2][1][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in Lucilius, of a scorpion with its tail raised (scorpios cauda sublata).^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the animal, Ovid uses it of a scorpion born from a buried crab,^[2] and Lucan and Martial name it as a creature to be feared.^[2] From Cicero's translation of Aratus on it named the constellation and zodiac sign Scorpio,^[2][3] as in Virgil's Georgics and an ode of Horace that names Libra and the fearsome Scorpion together.^[2][4]

By likeness it named a prickly sea fish,^[2][5] a shrub in Pliny the Elder,^[2] and a kind of artillery, in the historian Sisenna and in Gellius' list of old weapon names.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of the scorpion.^[2][6]
• 120–67 BC – The historian Sisenna uses it of an artillery engine.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero's translation of Aratus uses it for the constellation.^[2][3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a sea fish in the Halieutica.^[2][5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it as the name of a shrub.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scorpion.^[2][3][4]
2. (astronomy) The constellation or zodiac sign Scorpio.^[2][3]
3. A prickly sea fish, the same as the sea scorpiō.^[2][5]
4. A thorny shrub.^[2][1]
5. (military) A small catapult, an artillery engine.^[2][1]

Related words

• scorpaena
• scorpiacum
• scorpioctonon
• scorpītis
• scorpiūrus

Usage notes

The same senses are more often expressed by scorpiō, -ōnis, which goes back to the Greek by-form Ancient Greek σκορπίων (skorpíōn);^[5] Lewis & Short and the DMLBS enter scorpius under it.^[7][8]

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 o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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