Etymologically
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tetricus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtɛ.trɪ.kʊs], [ˈtɛt.rɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛː.tri.kus], [ˈtɛt.ri.kus][1]

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

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