Etymologically
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ululatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ʊ.ɫʊˈɫaː.tʊs], [ʊ.ɫʊˈɫaː.tuːs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [u.luˈlaː.tus], [u.luˈlaː.tus][1]

Forms

ululātus m (genitive ululātūs); fourth declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ululō (“to howl”) + -tus, an action noun.[2][1] De Vaan calls ululō an onomatopoeic verb for a sound like ⟨u⟩; it may go back to Proto-Indo-European, but this cannot be proved.[3] He compares Sanskrit उलूक (úlūka-, “owl”), Ancient Greek ὑλάω (hulláō, “to bark”) and Old High German ūla (“owl”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Caesar, who writes of a victory shouted out with yells;[4][2][5] Lewis & Short call them the war cries of the Gauls.[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is any drawn-out cry: of grief, as the women's wailing that fills the houses in the Aeneid; of triumph or defiance, as in Caesar; of religious frenzy, as of the Maenads in Catullus.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of a dog howling for its dead master.[2] Lewis & Short find it also in Ovid, Curtius and Statius.[5] Church Latin glosses it wailing, shrieking, howling.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 50 BC – Caesar of yells of victory.[2][5][4]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of the cries of Maenads.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of women wailing.[2][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a dog howling.[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A howling, wailing, yell: of grief; of triumph or defiance; of religious frenzy.[2][5][6][1]
  2. The howling of dogs or wolves.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson