Etymologically
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troia

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troia1 Troy

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈtrɔj.ja][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈtrɔː.ja][1]

Forms

Trōia f (genitive Trōiae); first declension[2] It is usually two syllables, but Seneca scans it as three (Trŏĭa).[2] The spelling Trōja is also found.[1][3]

Etymology

Troy is borrowed from Ancient Greek Τροία (Troía).[1][4] Latin dictionaries treat it under the name of the Trojans' ancestor, Trōs.[3][5] Köbler calls its further origin unclear.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are in Naevius, who speaks of the wives of two men leaving Troy by night, and in Ennius, where Hector is addressed as “light of Troy”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word named the city and its territory near the entrance to the Hellespont,[2] and it opens the Aeneid: the man who first came “from the shores of Troy” to Italy.[2] It was also the name of towns founded by refugees from Troy;[2] Livy says the place where the Trojans first landed in Italy was called Troia.[2]

It also named a traditional sham fight on horseback performed by boys, the lusus Troiae (“Troy game”), mentioned by Tacitus and Suetonius.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius names the city.[2][4]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions Troy in the Bacchides.[2][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has Hector addressed as “light of Troy”.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil opens the Aeneid with the man who came from the shores of Troy.[2][4]
  • 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy uses it for a place named after Troy by the Trojan settlers.[2][4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus mentions boys on horseback performing the Troy game.[2][4]

Meanings

Proper noun

  1. Troy, the city and its territory on the Asian side of the Hellespont.[2][1]
  2. The name of towns founded by refugees from Troy.[2]
  3. A traditional sham fight on horseback performed by boys; also lusus Troiae.[2][4]

troia2 sow

Forms

troia f (genitive troiae); first declension[6] Medieval spellings include troga, truia, trueia, truiga and truega.[6][4]

Etymology

The sow is a Late and Medieval Latin word of uncertain origin.[7][8] Walde derives it from an earlier *trogia, related to Middle High German drec (“dirt”) and Old Norse þrekkr.[7] Pokorny lists it, as perhaps belonging there, under Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter- (“dirty water, mud, smear”),[8] and Köbler refers it to the same group of roots with a question mark.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the Kassel glosses of the 8th century, meaning a sow.[4]

Semantic evolution

In medieval Latin it meant a female pig,[6][9] and, after the animal, a siege machine, which French also called truie.[6][9] In British documents the spelling truia names sows in lists of farm stock.[10]

Timeline

  • 8th century AD – The Kassel glosses record it for a sow.[4]
  • before 1151 – A Yorkshire charter counts ten truiae in a pig farm.[10]
  • 1181 – A survey of St Paul's estates allows ten sows with one boar on a holding.[10]
  • 1243 – The statutes of Avignon set a toll of four pence for a pig or a trueia.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) A sow, female pig.[6][4][9]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A siege machine.[6][9]
  • Trōs

Usage notes

The OLD thinks the name of the Troy game was probably a separate word at first, and compares Etruscan truia.[2] Köbler, following Walde and Hofmann, asks whether it is of Gallo-Romance origin.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  7. ^ a b Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  8. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ 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