ulcus

Forms

ulcus n (genitive ulceris); third declension^[1] The spelling hulcus is also found.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *elkos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elḱ-os (“ulcer”);^[3] ⟨*elkos⟩ became ⟨*olkos⟩ and then ⟨ulcus⟩.^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”).^[3] Less certainly, de Vaan adds Old Irish olc (“bad”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who has “I carry a back covered with sores like an oyster shell”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a sore or ulcer on the body, frequent in Celsus and Pliny the Elder and also in Lucretius, Virgil and Horace, and Grattius uses it of a growth on a tree.^[4][2] Martial uses it of a morbid sexual craving.^[4] Figuratively it is a sore point, as in Terence's “what was less useful than to touch this sore and name the wife?”^[4] Church Latin glosses it “sore, ulcer, boil”.^[5] English ulcer comes from it through Old French, recorded from about 1400.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a back covered with sores.^[4][3][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a sore point.^[4][7]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of ulcers in medicine.^[2][7]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of sexual craving.^[4][7]
• c. 1400 – English ulcer, through Old French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sore, ulcer, boil; a growth on a plant.^[4][2][5][1]
2. A morbid sexual craving.^[4]
3. Figuratively, a sore point, canker.^[4]

Word family

• ulcerāria
• ulcerō
• ulcerōsus
• ulcusculum

Related words

• ulcerātiō
• English ulcer

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes vulnus and plaga, wounds from outside, from ulcus, any open or sore place in the body that has begun to fester.^[8] He calls cicātrīx the scar left when a wound has healed.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper