tetricus

Forms

tetricus (feminine tetrica, neuter tetricum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] Lewis & Short treat it as a form of ⟨taetricus⟩, from taeter (“foul, repulsive”),^[3][1] but the OLD thinks it probably not connected with that word,^[4] and Wiktionary points out that poets scan its first syllable short.^[1] Walde and Hofmann and Pokorny related it to terō (“to rub”), and Köbler compares the root Proto-Indo-European *ter- (“to rub, bore”);^[2][5] de Vaan finds this semantically unconvincing and knows no good etymology.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it first in Varro,^[2] who has it in his Menippean Satires of a stern woman.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It means frowning, stern, severe, of persons and their looks, words and ways:^[4][6] Ovid uses it of a girl,^[6][7] Livy speaks of the tetrica discipline of the old Sabines,^[6] and Seneca uses it too.^[7] Martial extends it to harsh things, lawsuits, fevers, war trumpets and the Fates.^[4][6] Of places it means rugged or forbidding, and Tetrica or Tetrica rūpēs is a steep mountain on the borders of the Sabine and Picene lands, named by Varro, Virgil and Silius Italicus.^[4][6][7] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means harsh, severe, gloomy,^[8] and medieval writers in Britain use it of grim and gloomy things, of anger, and of darkness, as Alcuin of the gloomy darkness of ignorance.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a stern woman and names the mountain Tetrica.^[2][6][4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has Tetricae horrentis rūpēs.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^[6][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of fevers and trumpets.^[4][5]
• 672 – Aldhelm writes of the tetrica problems of the heavenly library.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Frowning, stern, severe, gloomy (of a person, his looks, words or actions).^[4][6][8]
2. (poetic) Harsh, grim (of conditions and things).^[4][6]
3. Rugged, forbidding (of places); Tetrica (rūpēs), a steep mountain on the Sabine and Picene border.^[4][6]

Word family

• tetricitās

Related words

• taeter
• sevērus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press