Etymologically
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tragus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtra.ɡʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtraː.ɡus][1]

Forms

tragus m (genitive tragī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”).[2][3][1] The Greek word also meant the smell of a he-goat, a fish (the male μαινίς (mainís)) and several plants, spelt among them.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The historian Sisenna uses it for a kind of boat.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Ovid's poem on fishing and Pliny the Elder use it for a fish, which Pliny identifies as the male maena in the breeding season;[2][6] Pliny also gives it to a sponge, to a plant also called scorpiō and to an unidentified cereal brought from the East.[2][5] Martial uses it for the goat-like smell of the body,[2][6] and Paul the Deacon's abridgement of Festus for a shellfish with a bad taste.[2]

Medieval Latin used it for a goat, a rough sponge and a shrub.[7][8] In English, Modern Latin tragus became in the 1690s the name of the small projection at the opening of the ear, after a tuft of hair there that resembles a goat's beard.[9]

Timeline

  • 120–67 BC – Sisenna uses it for a kind of boat.[2][8]
  • 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid uses it for a fish.[2][6][8]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a fish, a sponge, a plant and a cereal.[2][8]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it for body odour.[2][6][8]
  • 14th century – Köbler records the medieval sense “sponge”.[8]
  • 1690s – English uses Modern Latin tragus for a part of the ear.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A goat-like body odour.[2][6]
  2. A fish, the male maena in the breeding season.[2][6]
  3. A shellfish with a bad taste.[2]
  4. A kind of sponge.[2][5]
  5. A plant, the same as scorpiō.[2]
  6. An unidentified cereal.[2][5]
  7. A kind of boat.[2][5]
  8. (Medieval Latin) A goat.[7]
  9. (Medieval Latin) A shrub of the genus Ephedra.[7]
  10. (New Latin, anatomy) The tragus of the ear.[9]
  • English tragus

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 p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com