semifer

Forms

sēmifer (feminine sēmifera, neuter sēmiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmi- (“half”) + ferus (“wild”).^[2][1][3] The prefix goes back to Proto-Italic *sēmi- and to Proto-Indo-European *sēm-i (“in one”), a locative whose meaning shifted from “in one” to “one of the two” and then to “half”.^[4] The adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *χwero- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰueh₁r- (“wild animal”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest uses the OLD records are in Cicero's translation of Aratus, of the half-beast body of Capricorn, and in Lucretius, of Pan's half-animal head;^[2][5] Köbler dates it from Virgil.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It describes creatures that are half human and half beast.^[2][6] As a noun it names a centaur, Chiron in Ovid and Statius,^[2][6] and Virgil uses it of Cacus^[2][6] and of the chest of a Triton.^[6] Mela calls the Aegipanes hardly men and rather half-beasts, and Pliny the Elder reports half-beast offspring of men and wild animals in India.^[2] Grattius uses it of a breed of dogs crossed with wild animals.^[2][6] In a transferred sense it means half-savage, of a race of men in Pliny and of men in Silius Italicus, and half-wild, of the dormouse in Pliny.^[2][6] Medieval writers in Britain used it of half-monsters such as Triton and the centaurs, and of half-savage people.^[7]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the constellation Capricorn.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the head of Pan.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Cacus.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of half-savage peoples and of the dormouse.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Half man and half beast, half-bestial.^[2][6][5]
2. Half-savage, brutish; of animals, half-wild.^[2][6][5]

Noun

1. A creature half man and half beast, especially a centaur.^[2][5]

Related words

• sēmihomō
• ferus
• fera

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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