Etymologically
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spelunca

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [speːˈɫʊŋ.ka][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [speˈluŋ.ka][1]

Forms

spēlunca f (genitive spēluncae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx, “cave”), adapted.[2][3][4] Köbler compares σπήλαιον (spḗlaion, “cave, grotto”) and σπέος (spéos, “cave”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,[5] who has “Philoctetes has now been lying in his cave for ten years”.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a cave, cavern or grotto, also an animal's den.[2][3] Döderlein distinguishes it from specus and caverna, hollows below or level with the ground: spelunca is a cavity with an opening leading into a mountain, thought of physically, for its darkness and dread, while antrum is a grotto seen as beautiful and cool.[6]

Church Latin glosses it “cave, den, lair”.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of Philoctetes' cave.[3][5]
  • late 14th century – Borrowed into English as spelunk “cave”, partly through Old French.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cave, cavern, grotto; a den.[2][3][1]

Word family

  • speluncosus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson