ulula

Forms

ulula f (genitive ululae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ululō (“to howl”).^[2][3][4] De Vaan takes the verb as onomatopoeic, imitating a sound like /u/; a root Proto-Indo-European *ul- or *ulul- may already have existed in Proto-Indo-European, but this cannot be proven.^[3] He compares Sanskrit उलूक (úlūka-, “owl”), Ancient Greek ὑλάω (huláō, “to bark”) and Old High German ūla (“owl”).^[3]

Ancient writers heard Greek in it: Isidore of Seville derived it from Ancient Greek ὀλολύζω (ololúzō, “to cry aloud”), from wailing and grief, because its cry imitates weeping or groaning.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first to use it,^[3] naming the ulula beside the noctua and the bubo in his De lingua Latina.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

It named an owl, probably the tawny owl,^[2][7] whose cry was taken as a bad omen.^[8][6] It became proverbial: in his Menippean satires Varro says of someone homines eum peius formidant quam fullo ululam, “people fear him more than a fuller fears the owl”.^[8] Virgil and Pliny the Elder use it,^[2][9] and the Vulgate has it in Isaiah.^[6] Apuleius writes that nature gave owls an evening song.^[6]

According to Isidore, augurs read its lament as a sign of sorrow and its silence as one of good fortune.^[5] In British medieval glossaries it also glosses a seamew or gull.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro names the bird in De lingua Latina and makes it proverbial in his satires.^[6][8][11]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Eclogues.^[2][11]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes it.^[2][11]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has it in Isaiah.^[6][11]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville derives the name from Greek.^[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. An owl, probably the tawny owl (Strix aluco), whose cry was of ill omen.^[2][8][7]
2. (Medieval Latin, glossaries) A seamew or gull.^[10]

Related words

• ululō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de