subterraneus

Forms

subterrāneus (feminine subterrānea, neuter subterrāneum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from sub (“under”) and terra (“earth, ground”) with the adjective suffix -āneus.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in a letter of Cicero to Atticus, of underground caves (specūs) on an estate.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it described anything under the ground: caves, a slave prison (ergastulum) in Columella, waters running to the sea through underground veins and underground houses in Pliny the Elder, and mice in Seneca.^[2][5] Juvenal uses it of the realms of the dead (subterrānea rēgna),^[4][2] and Vitruvius of the part of the sky below the horizon, from which the sun rises.^[4] As a neuter noun, subterrāneum was an underground place in Pliny the Younger and Apuleius.^[2][5]

Medieval British writers used it of tunnels, channels and passages, and figuratively of the innermost part of something; an Old English gloss renders the noun as “earth-house”.^[6] English formed subterranean from it about 1600.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes of underground caves.^[4][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the sky below the horizon.^[4][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella mentions an underground slave prison.^[2][5][7]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal speaks of the underground realms of the dead.^[4][7]
• c. 1600 – English forms subterranean from it.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Underground, subterranean.^[4][2]
2. Of the underworld.^[4]
3. Below the horizon.^[4]
4. (Medieval Latin, figurative) Innermost.^[6]

Noun

1. (neuter) An underground place or chamber.^[2][5][6]

Related words

• terra
• English subterranean

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c 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
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de