surus

Forms

sūrus m (genitive sūrī); second declension^[1] The length of the u is unclear: it scans short in the compound crebrisurus but apparently long in Ennius, whose text is uncertain.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3] If the vowel was long, de Vaan suggests a connection with sūra (“calf of the leg”), the post being named after the body part; if it was short, the word might be cognate with Sanskrit स्वरु (sváru-, “sacrificial post, stake”).^[3] The OLD likewise compares the Sanskrit word and Middle High German swir.^[2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“stick, pole”), the root it also sees in Old English sweor (“pillar, column”),^[1] and Köbler to the same root, with the meaning “post”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is a line of Ennius' Annales, quoted by Festus, in which the word means a stake.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

It means a branch or a stake, and is known almost only through the grammarians.^[8][6] Varro says that surus was the word from which the diminutive surculus, a twig, was made,^[8][7] and it is part of the compound crebrisurus, set with close stakes.^[2]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a stake.^[6][7][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro names it as the base of surculus.^[8][7][4]
• 2nd half of the 2nd century AD – Festus quotes Ennius' line with the word.^[8][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stake, a post.^[2][7]
2. A branch, a shoot.^[8][6]

Word family

• surculus

Related words

• sūra

Usage notes

A homograph Surus is another spelling of Syrus, a Syrian,^[2][6] and the name of a famous elephant in the Carthaginian army mentioned by Cato.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press