tonitrus

Forms

tonitrus m (genitive tonitrūs); fourth declension^[1] The plural is tonitrūs (masculine) or tonitrua (neuter).^[2][3] There is also a neuter tonitruum.^[3][4] A neuter nominative tonitru rests only on the grammarians.^[3]

Etymology

It is a derivative from Latin tonō (“to thunder”).^[2][3][1] The OLD suggests an earlier ⟨*tonitus⟩, a noun in ⟨-tus⟩, influenced by fulgetrum (“lightning”).^[2] Wiktionary and Köbler trace the verb to Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has the nominative tonitrus in the Amphitruo.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means thunder.^[2][3][1] Pacuvius has the sky trembling with thunder, and Virgil a speaker who will stir the whole sky with thunder.^[4][3] Lucretius and Pliny the Elder speak of hearing thunder, and Cicero of lightning flashes and thunder.^[3] It is also an artificial imitation of thunder or a contrivance for producing it, as in Sallust, where a statue of Victory, lowered with the sound of machine-made thunder, placed a crown on someone's head, and in Vitruvius and Phaedrus of stage machinery.^[2] It also means a noise like thunder: Pliny the Elder writes of a terrible thunder heard inside when the doors are opened, and Statius and Silius Italicus of the thunder of arms and of a huge shield.^[2] Stelten gives "thunder" for Church Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in the Amphitruo.^[4][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of the sky trembling with thunder.^[4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust of stage thunder.^[2]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the sky stirred with thunder.^[3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a thunderous noise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Thunder.^[2][3][1][6]
2. An artificial imitation of thunder; a machine for producing it.^[2]
3. A noise like thunder.^[2]

Related words

• tonō
• fulgetrum

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson