ululo

Forms

ululō (present infinitive ululāre, perfect active ululāvī, supine ululātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is an imitative verb for a sound in /u/.^[2][3] De Vaan notes that ⟨ul-⟩ or ⟨ulul-⟩ may already have existed in Proto-Indo-European, but this cannot be proved.^[2] Similar words are Sanskrit उलूक (úlūka, “owl”) and Ancient Greek ὑλάω (huláō, “to bark”); the OLD compares Ancient Greek ὀλολύζω (ololúzō, “to cry aloud”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius.^[2] In the OLD's earliest quotation, from Ennius, a hunting dog sniffs and howls shrilly.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is used of animals, especially dogs and wolves, and of ghosts howling.^[3][5] Of people it is a long cry of grief or distress, a battle cry, or a ritual cry: Virgil has nymphs crying out on the mountain top at a wedding and women shrieking in battle.^[3] With an object it is to call on or celebrate with howling, as Hecate howled to at crossroads, and to fill a place with howling.^[3] Church Latin glosses it to shout, shriek, wail.^[6] English ululate comes from it, from the 1620s.^[7]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a hunting dog.^[3][2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of human cries in grief, battle and ritual, and of Hecate howled to.^[3][4]
• 1620s – English ululate is formed from it.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of animals and ghosts, to howl.^[3][5][1]
2. Of people, to utter long cries, wail in grief, yell in battle, cry out in a rite.^[3][5][6]
3. With an object, to call on or celebrate with howling; to fill a place with howling.^[3][5]

Word family

• exululō
• ulula
• ululābilis
• ululamen
• ululātiō
• ululātus

Related words

• English ululate
• English howl

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com