Etymologically
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ulcus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈʊɫ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈul.kus][1]

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
  • 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