Etymologically
Log in

thia

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 04:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtʰiː.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtiː.a][1]

Forms

thīa f (genitive thīae); first declension[1] Also spelled ⟨tia⟩ and ⟨thya⟩.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek θεία (theía, “aunt”),[1][3][2] the feminine of the word that gave thius “uncle”.[4] A glossary notes that it is a Greek word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conte and VoLat find it first in Rufinus' Church History;[6][7] the CGL compares the Greek θείᾳ at that place in Eusebius.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the everyday word for “aunt” in Late and Medieval Latin, in the place of classical amita (father's sister) and mātertera (mother's sister).[2][5] The second Council of Braga uses it,[8][4] and in a letter of Gregory the Great some manuscripts read Patheriae thiae meae, “my aunt Pateria”, where others have amitae;[8] Conte cites the passage under this word.[6] Spanish charters speak of land given by tia mea.[8] The glossaries render it now by amita, the father's sister,[5][3] now by mātertera, the mother's sister;[5][3] Niermeyer gives the father's sister,[2] and an English glossary of the later Middle Ages glosses it “aunt, mother's sister”.[3] It lives on in Italian zia, Spanish tía, Portuguese tia and Catalan tia.[1][2]

Timeline

  • c. 345–411/412 AD – Rufinus uses it in his Church History.[6][4]
  • 563 – The second Council of Braga uses it.[8][4]
  • 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great writes of his aunt Pateria, in the reading of some manuscripts.[8][6][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) An aunt, especially a father's sister.[2][1][6][3]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A mother's sister.[5][3]

Usage notes

The OLD and Lewis & Short also record the proper name Thīa, from Greek Θεία: the wife of Hyperion and mother of Eos, or of the Sun in Catullus.[9][10] Pliny the Elder and Pomponius Mela name an island Thia.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
  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 Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  7. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
  8. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
  9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.