supercilium

Forms

supercilium n (genitive superciliī or supercilī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from super- (“above”) and a noun cilium (“eyelid”).^[2][3] Since ⟨cilium⟩ is found only from Pliny the Elder, long after ⟨supercilium⟩, it can be explained as a back-formation from the compound, as Walde and Hofmann and Ernout and Meillet proposed;^[3][2] de Vaan notes that a noun for “eyelid” must still have existed, since the eyelid hides the eye but the brow does not, so ⟨supercilium⟩ may first have meant “what is above the eyelid”.^[3] He derives that noun from Proto-Italic *kel-jo- (“eyelid”) and Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-io- (“hiding”), from the root of occulō (“to hide”) and cēlō (“to conceal”).^[3] The OLD calls the derivation from the root of ⟨occulō⟩ only probable.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has “so my eyebrow twitches”, as an omen, in the Pseudolus;^[2] Köbler also gives Plautus.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is the eyebrow, often with the ridge on which it grows, mostly in the plural, and the brows used to nod assent or refusal and to make signs, as Cicero's men who deny the charge with their eyebrows.^[2][5] Varro uses it of horses, and Petronius of a false eyebrow.^[2] As the brow that frowns it stands for sternness, gravity or haughtiness, as Cicero's man who hid his secret vices behind his forehead and brow, and so for stern looks, severity and pride.^[2][5][1]

By transfer it is the brow of a hill or an overhanging bank, as in the Bellum Africum, a small rise in surveying, and a projecting stretch of coast in Mela;^[2] in architecture it is an overhang or the lintel of a door, as in Vitruvius.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “eyebrow; pride, arrogance”.^[6] English took it in the 1670s for the eyebrow, and supercilious comes from the figurative sense.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a twitching eyebrow.^[2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a horse's eyebrows.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a stern brow hiding vices.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of a moulding in an Ionic base.^[2][4]
• 1670s – Borrowed into English as supercilium.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An eyebrow, the brow;^[2][5][1][6] the brows as used in nodding or making signs.^[2]
2. Sternness, gravity; haughtiness, pride.^[2][5][1][6]
3. The brow of a hill, an overhanging edge or bank; a projection of a coastline.^[2][5][1]
4. (architecture) An overhang; the lintel of a door.^[2]

Word family

• superciliōsus

Related words

• cilium
• occulō
• cēlō
• English supercilious

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com