sphaera

Forms

sphaera f (genitive sphaerae); first declension^[1] Cato writes spaera.^[2] Post-classical writers also have sphēra.^[3] Medieval Latin also spelled it spera.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”).^[2][3][1][5] Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to jerk, kick”),^[5] but Etymonline, following Beekes, calls the Greek word of unknown origin, with no certain cognates outside Greek.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato (234–149 BC) is the first to use it, in his work on farming, for balls of pastry with cheese and honey made as high as a fist.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it of a solid globe (one with a cylinder was set on top of a tomb), of geometrical spheres, of the spheres in which the stars were thought to move round the earth, and of a working model of the heavens.^[2][3] Apuleius applies it to a many-sided solid.^[2] Later writers use it of the heavenly bodies themselves, and of a ball to play with.^[3]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a circle, sphere, globe or ball.^[6] Medieval Latin wrote it spera, and through Old French it gave Middle English spere (about 1300), respelled sphere after the Latin from the mid-15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato calls balls of pastry spaerae.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the celestial spheres and of a model of the universe.^[2][3][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a polyhedron.^[2][5]
• c. 1300 – Middle English has spere, from Old French.^[4]
• mid-15th century – The English spelling sphere follows the Latin.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sphere, globe, ball-shaped body.^[2][3]
2. One of the imaginary spheres in which the heavenly bodies were believed to travel round the earth.^[2][3]
3. A working model of the universe, a kind of orrery.^[2][3]
4. A ball for playing with.^[3][1]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A circle.^[6]

Word family

• sphaerālis
• sphaericus
• sphaerula

Related words

• sphaerion
• sphaerista
• sphaeristērium
• sphaeroīdēs
• sphaeromachia
• English sphere

Usage notes

Globus is the ordinary Latin word for any round body;^[7][3] sphaera is the learned word taken from Greek for a mathematical globe.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f 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
7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper