susurrus

Forms

susurrus m (genitive susurrī); second declension^[1] Apuleius has a genitive susurrūs and an ablative susurrū.^[2]

Etymology

It is an onomatopoeic word: its reduplication, hissing /s/ and doubled /r/ imitate the sound of whispering and rustling.^[3][2] De Vaan allows that it may still be built on Proto-Indo-European *suer- (“to resound”),^[3] which Wiktionary and Köbler also give.^[1][4] He compares Oscan sverruneí, the title of an official of Abella, perhaps “speaker”,^[3] and words such as Sanskrit स्वर (svára-, “to make a sound, snort”), Old Norse svarra (“to sparkle, rustle”) and Old English swerian (“to swear”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[3][4] for a whisper: in the Rudens a speaker demands that there be no murmur or whispering (nolo murmur ullum neque susurrum fieri).^[5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is the sound of someone speaking softly, a whisper, and also a whispered report or insinuation.^[2][5] Poets extend it to soft natural sounds: Virgil's hedge, grazed by bees, will invite sleep with its light hum (levi somnum suadebit inire susurro), and Calpurnius uses it of fermenting must.^[2][5] Horace has gentle whispers at nightfall, and Ovid personifies the Susurri as attendants of Rumour.^[5]

Ecclesiastical Latin also uses it as an adjective for “whispering” and as a noun for a whisperer.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for whispering.^[3][5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the hum of bees.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the plural for gentle whispers.^[5][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid personifies the Susurri.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A whisper, a low voice; a whispered report or insinuation.^[2][5]
2. A soft rustling, humming or murmuring sound of things.^[2][5]

Word family

• susurratim
• susurrō

Usage notes

A rare adjective susurrus, -a, -um, “whispering”, appears in Ovid.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson