turriger

Forms

turriger (feminine turrigera, neuter turrigerum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin turris (“tower”) + -ger (“bearing”).^[2][1][3] The second part is the compounding form of gerō (“to carry”).^[4][3] The noun ⟨turris⟩ is a loanword from Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis) or τύρσις (túrsis),^[2][5][1] which Wiktionary thinks is probably a Mediterranean substrate word;^[1] the OLD compares Oscan tiurrí.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil,^[3] who in the Aeneid calls cities (urbēs) and the town of Antemnae tower-bearing.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It is poetic and post-Augustan.^[6] It was used of cities and riverbanks with towers, of ships carrying towers (Lucan) and of elephants with towers on their backs (Pliny the Elder, Silius Italicus).^[6][7] Lucan pictures the fatherland turrigerō cānōs effundēns vertice crīnēs, spreading white hair from its towered head.^[6]

It became an epithet of Cybele, who wore a crown of towers:^[2][6] Propertius and Ovid use it of her, Ovid also of Ops, and Statius of her shrine.^[2] Lewis and Short see in the crown the earth and its cities.^[6] In British medieval Latin Walter of Wimborne writes of a tower-bearing elephant.^[8]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls cities tower-bearing.^[6][3]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it of Cybele.^[2][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid calls Cybele turrigera.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of elephants carrying towers.^[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bearing a tower or towers, turreted (of cities, ships, elephants).^[2][6]
2. (of Cybele) Wearing a crown of towers.^[2][6]

Related words

• turris

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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