terrenus

Forms

terrēnus (feminine terrēna, neuter terrēnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin terra (“earth, land”) + -ēnus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives terra from Proto-Italic *tersā- (“earth”) and Proto-Indo-European *ters-h₂- (“dry land”), from the root ⟨*ters-⟩ “to dry out”, so that the word first meant “dry land”.^[4] He reports Nussbaum's suggestion that the adjective was made from a locative ⟨*terrai⟩ “on the ground”;^[4] Wiktionary also gives a possible Proto-Italic ⟨*terzeznos⟩ built directly on the neuter s-stem.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Lucretius,^[4] and Köbler lists Cicero among its first authors.^[3] Cicero opposes moisture of the sea and of the land, marinis terrenisque umoribus, and divides animals into those of the land and those of the water.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “of the dry land” as opposed to the sea, then “of the ground”.^[2] Caesar has an earthen mound, tumulus terrenus, and Livy uses the neuter terrenum as a noun for soil that can be ploughed.^[2][5] Ovid has a furnace of baked clay.^[2] In philosophy it is what consists of earth as one of the four elements, and Cicero applies it to the material, mortal part of man.^[2] Apuleius and Lucan use it of the earth or the known world as against the heavens, “earthly”.^[2] In Church Latin it is the earthly and transitory as opposed to the eternal, with terrēna “earthly things”,^[6] and medieval writers use it for what belongs to this world and this life.^[7] English took terrene about 1300, and terrain came in 1727 through French from the neuter used as a noun.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has the adjective.^[4][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of land as against sea, and of the earthly part of man.^[2][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of an earthen mound.^[2][5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a clay furnace.^[2][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius, of the earth as the known world.^[2][3]
• Ecclesiastical Latin – Earthly and transitory, as opposed to eternal.^[6]
• c. 1300 – Borrowed into English as terrene.^[8]
• 1727 – English terrain, through French, from the neuter used as a noun.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the dry land, as opposed to the sea;^[2][1] of animals, living on land.^[2]
2. Of or in the ground.^[2]
3. Consisting of earth, earthy; made of baked clay, earthen.^[2][5]
4. (philosophy) Consisting of earth as an element; of the material part of man.^[2]
5. Of the earth or the known world, terrestrial, earthly.^[2][1]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Earthly, transitory, as opposed to the eternal.^[6][7]

Noun

1. (neuter, terrēnum) Earthy matter, soil.^[2][5]
2. (neuter plural, terrēna, Ecclesiastical Latin) Earthly things.^[6]

Word family

• subterrēnus
• superterrenus
• terrēnitās

Related words

• terra
• terrestris
• terreus
• territōrium
• extorris
• English terrene
• English terrain

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 e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com