sura

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈsuː.ra]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈsuː.ra]^[1]

Forms

sūra f (genitive sūrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OLD and Wiktionary compare Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra, “part of a sacrificial victim”).^[3][1] De Vaan considers a link with sūrus (“post, stake”) if that word had a long vowel: the post would then have been named after the part of the body, as often happens.^[2] Köbler tentatively sets up Proto-Indo-European *sōurā, beside a root Proto-Indo-European *su̯er- (“post”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][4] who has it in the Pseudolus.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is the calf of the leg.^[3][5] Cicero has it in his Aratea, Horace speaks of shapely calves and of swollen ones, and Ovid, Pliny the Elder and Juvenal use it too.^[5] In anatomy Celsus uses it of the fibula, which can come apart from the shin bone.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[5][2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero in the Aratea.^[5][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of shapely calves.^[5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of the fibula.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The calf of the leg.^[3][5][1]
2. (anatomy) The fibula.^[3]

Related words

• sūrus
• surculus

Usage notes

Sura is also a Roman cognomen, found in Pliny the Elder, and the name of a river in Germany, a tributary of the Moselle, in Ausonius.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press