spondeus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [spɔnˈdeː.ʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [sponˈdɛː.us]^[1]

Forms

spondēus m (genitive spondēī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σπονδεῖος (spondeîos, “of libations, spondee”),^[2][3][1] from σπονδή (spondḗ, “libation”).^[4][5] Lewis & Short explain that the foot was named from the slow, solemn melodies sung at libations.^[6] Other spellings are spondīus and the incorrect spondaeus.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero uses it of the metrical foot, and in a fragment tells how Pythagoras made a flute girl play a spondaic tune.^[2][7] Köbler dates Cicero 81–43 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was the metrical foot of two long syllables, and also a spondaic measure in music, as when Quintilian speaks of changing the tunes into spondees.^[2][8] Apuleius uses a neuter spondēum for a vessel used in libations.^[6][8]

English spondee is recorded in the late 14th century, through Old French.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the spondee.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of spondaic tunes.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – English spondee is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spondee, a metrical foot of two long syllables.^[2][6]
2. A spondaic measure in music.^[2]

Related words

• English spondee

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn