Etymologically
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semivir

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈseː.mɪ.wɪr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛː.mi.vir][1]

Forms

sēmivir m (genitive sēmivirī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sēmi- (“half”) + vir (“man”).[2][1][3] Sēmi- goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sēm-i (“in one”), a locative whose meaning shifted to “one of the two” and then “half”; it is cognate with Ancient Greek ἡμι- (hēmi-, “half”).[4] Vir goes back to Proto-Italic *wiro- and Proto-Indo-European *uiH-ró- (“man, young man, warrior”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short say it is not found before the Augustan age.[5] The earliest instance the OLD quotes is in Virgil, of Paris with his semivir comitatus, “half-man retinue”, the sense of effeminate men.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means a half-man and is used both as a noun and as an adjective.[2][5] Ovid applies it to mythical beings half man and half beast: the Minotaur, semibovemque virum semivirumque bovem, the centaur Nessus, and Chiron, “half-man and mixed with the body of a tawny horse”.[2][5] Ovid and Pliny the Elder use it of a hermaphrodite.[5] Of men lacking virility it was said of eunuchs, as the half-man band of Cybele in Martial and in Seneca, Valerius Flaccus, Silius, Juvenal and Apuleius,[2] and of effeminate men in Virgil, Livy, Lucan and Statius.[2][5]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil speaks of Paris' semivir comitatus.[2][3]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the Minotaur, Nessus and Chiron.[2][3]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it beside hermaphrodites and eunuchs.[2][3]
  • c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a self-castrated man.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A half-man; a being half man and half beast, as a centaur or the Minotaur.[2][5][1]
  2. A hermaphrodite.[5][1]
  3. A eunuch.[2][5][1]

Adjective

  1. Half-human; unmanly, effeminate.[2][5]
  • sēmimās

Usage notes

Lewis and Short give sēmihomo and sēmimās as equivalents.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press