turritus

Forms

turrītus (feminine turrīta, neuter turrītum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin turris (“tower”) + -ītus.^[2][1][3] The noun turris is a loan of Ancient Greek τύρρις (túrrhis) or its variant τύρσις (túrsis);^[2][4][1] the OLD compares Oscan tiurrí.^[2] Wiktionary considers the Greek word itself probably a Mediterranean substrate word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest quotation in the OLD is from Lucretius, who calls elephants turrītō corpore, “with a tower-bearing body”, of the castles they carried in war.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin, mostly in poetry, it describes walls, towns, siege works and ships furnished with towers,^[2][5][6] and elephants carrying a howdah, as in the Bellum Africum and Pliny the Elder.^[2][7] As an epithet of the goddess Cybele it means wearing a crown of towers, in Virgil, Propertius and Ovid,^[2][5] and Silius applies it to a man wearing the mural crown.^[2] It is also used of things shaped like a tower or towering high, such as cliffs in Virgil and a lofty headdress in Lucan,^[2][3] and in Christian writers of a towering head.^[5][3] Medieval writers used it of ships carrying castles and of towered towns.^[8][9] It survives in Italian turrito.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of elephants bearing towers.^[2][10]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls Cybele turrīta and uses it of towering cliffs.^[2][10]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of a tower-shaped headdress.^[2][10]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it of a towering head.^[5][10]
• Medieval Latin – Used of ships carrying castles.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Furnished or fortified with towers, turreted.^[2][5]
2. Of Cybele and others, wearing a crown of towers.^[2][5]
3. Of an elephant, bearing a howdah or castle.^[2][7]
4. Shaped like a tower, towering, lofty.^[2][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) Of a ship, carrying castles.^[8][9]

Related words

• turris
• turriger

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 j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de