Etymologically
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thorax

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtʰoː.raːks], [ˈtʰoː.raks][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɔː.raks][1]

Forms

thōrā̆x m (genitive thōrācis); third declension[1] Besides the genitive thōrācis the OLD records the Greek thōrācos.[2] Poets use the Greek accusative thōrāca.[2][3] Trebellius Pollio uses it as feminine.[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek θώραξ (thṓrax, “breastplate, chest”).[2][4][5][1] Beekes, as quoted by Etymonline, calls the Greek word a technical term without etymology, probably a loan.[6] Köbler mentions a possible connection with Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to hold, support”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Virgil uses it of armour: Turnus wears a ruddy cuirass with bronze scales,[2] and Livy, whom Köbler gives as its first author, has it too.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the armour is the older sense: a cuirass covering the upper body, in Virgil, Livy, Curtius, Pliny the Elder and the epic poets of the 1st century.[2] Civilians wore a similar garment: Juvenal mentions a green jerkin, and Suetonius says Augustus protected himself in winter with a woollen one.[2] The medical writers Celsus and Pliny use it of the chest or trunk of the body,[2] and the Historia Augusta of a bust.[4]

Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the senses of breast and breastplate.[8] English took it from Latin in the late 14th century as thorax, the chest.[6]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a warrior's cuirass.[2][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of armour.[2][7]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of the chest.[2][7]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of a woollen jerkin.[2][7]
  • late 14th century – English borrows it as thorax.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cuirass, breastplate.[2][4]
  2. A similar garment worn by civilians, a jerkin.[2][9]
  3. The chest, trunk of the body.[2][4]
  4. A bust (statue).[4]

Word family

  • thōrācātus
  • thoraciculus
  • English thorax

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier