senium

Forms

senium n (genitive seniī or senī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The OLD derives it from Latin senex (“old man”) + -ium;^[2][3] Lewis & Short connect it with seneō (“to be old”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of senex, and notes it may be formed from an o-stem noun, like senīlis.^[4] He traces the family to Proto-Italic *seno- (“old; old man”) and Proto-Indo-European *sen-(o-) (“old”), comparing Old Irish sen (“old”), Sanskrit सन (sána-, “old”), Ancient Greek ἕνος (hénos, “old, of last year”) and Lithuanian sẽnas (“old”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[4][5] The OLD's earliest quotation is from Ennius, of a brave horse that rests, worn out by old age.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the condition of old age, usually with the idea of decay: Cicero writes of a work free from all disease and decay.^[3] It can be the period of old age itself, as in Lucan, and in Statius the long course of an age.^[2] Early on it also meant gloom and melancholy, or a cause of grief: Pacuvius lists it with fear, want and sorrow.^[2] Wiktionary gives a rare use for an old man.^[1] Church Latin glosses it senility.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a horse worn out by age.^[2][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of melancholy.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of decay.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The feebleness of old age, decline, decay.^[2][3][6][1]
2. The period of old age; dotage; poetically, the long course of anything.^[2]
3. Melancholy, gloom, chagrin; a source of grief.^[2][1]
4. (rare) An old man.^[1]

Word family

• seniōsus

Related words

• senex
• senectūs
• senīlis

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson