typhus

Forms

tȳphus m (genitive tȳphī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “smoke, vapour; conceit; stupor”).^[2][3][1][4] Etymonline connects the Greek noun with τύφω (túphō, “to smoke”);^[4] Köbler compares a PIE Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to smoke, be dark”), but Etymonline notes that Beekes rejects a derivation from a PIE root.^[3][4] Isidore of Seville explained the Latin word by a marsh plant that swells up from water: from it, he says, the swollen pride of ambitious and self-satisfied men is called ⟨typhus⟩.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Arnobius is its first author: he speaks of the exaltation of the mind and what the Greeks call typhus.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

It was a Christian word for pride and conceit:^[2][7][8] Augustine uses it in the Confessions,^[2][9] Martianus Capella has it too,^[2] and Ambrose writes that Moses dispersed the pride of Egypt.^[6] In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of vanity and conceit;^[10][11] Aldhelm and Bede use it of a swelling, Bede explaining that the Greek typhus is Latin īnflātiō,^[11] and English glossaries use it for a marsh plant, water hemlock.^[11]

The medical sense goes back to Greek, where Hippocrates used the word for a confused state of mind tending to stupor.^[4] The physician Boissier de Sauvages called a fever with stupor typhus in 1760, and William Cullen adopted the name in 1769;^[4] Wiktionary calls it an early modern coinage.^[1] English typhus is recorded from 1785.^[4]

Timeline

• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of pride.^[2][3]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses it in the Confessions.^[2][9][3]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it by a marsh plant that swells.^[5][3]
• 672 – Aldhelm uses it of a swelling of arrogance.^[11]
• 1760 – Boissier de Sauvages names a fever typhus.^[4]
• 1785 – English typhus is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin) Pride, conceit, arrogance.^{[2][7][9][8][10]}
2. (Medieval Latin) A swelling.^[11]
3. (Medieval Latin) A marsh plant, water hemlock.^[11][5]
4. (New Latin, medicine) Typhus, a fever with stupor.^[1][4]

Related words

• English typhus

Usage notes

In medieval texts typhus is also a spelling of typus in the sense of a periodic fever.^[10][6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e f 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