sturnus

Forms

sturnus m (genitive sturnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *storno- (“starling”), which de Vaan reconstructs with a question mark, from Proto-Indo-European *(h₂)st(o)r-no- (“starling”), also queried.^[2] He connects it with Germanic words for the tern and the starling: Old English stearn, Dutch stern (“tern”), Old High German star, German Star, Middle Dutch sterre, Old Norse stari and stær, with its diminutive stærling (“starling”).^[2] The link with Old Prussian starnite (“seagull”) is less certain.^[2] The gloss word Ancient Greek ἀστραλός (astralós, “starling”), recorded by Hesychius, would point to an initial *h₂-, but it stands alone.^[2][3] Wiktionary notes that the word was traditionally, perhaps wrongly, connected with Ancient Greek ψάρ (psár, “starling”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Pliny the Elder on, as the name of the starling.^[2][5][4] An inscription from Herculaneum, dated to 1–79 AD, also has the form sturnus.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word keeps the one meaning, the starling, throughout Latin.^[3][4][7] After Pliny the Elder it appears in Martial and Statius, and in the Digest in a passage of Ulpian.^[4][7] Medieval glossaries render it with Greek ψάρ (psár) and with Old English staer and stærlinc, and British medieval writers from Aldhelm on use it of the bird, including a starling taught to imitate human speech.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it in the Natural History.^[4][7][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it.^[7][10]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius names it in the Silvae.^[4][7]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian mentions starlings in a passage of the Digest.^[4][7][5]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in Anglo-Latin.^[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The starling, a bird.^{[3][4][7][10]}

Word family

• sturninus

Related words

• English starling

Usage notes

Lewis & Short and Georges identify the bird as the common starling, which Linnaeus named Sturnus vulgaris.^[4][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Kaše, Vojtěch; Heřmánková, Petra; Sobotková, Adéla et al. (2024), LIST: Latin Inscriptions in Space and Time, v1.2 (EDCS + EDH), Aarhus: SDAM, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10473706
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.