urvum

Forms

urvum n (genitive urvī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled urbum.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The etymology is disputed.^[4] De Vaan tentatively reconstructs Proto-Italic *worw-o- (“plough or furrow”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *u(o)ru-o-, and notes that the first meaning may have been either “plough” or “furrow”.^[4] The word is usually compared with Ancient Greek ὅρος (hóros, “boundary”), Homeric οὖρος (oûros) and Mycenaean Greek wo-wo, which may come from ἐρύω (erúō, “to draw, tear”); on this view the shift from “drawing” to “boundary” would have a Greek parallel.^[4] Oscan uruvú may belong here, but its meaning (“broad” or “of the boundary”) is unclear.^[4]

De Vaan treats the verb urvō, “to mark out a boundary with a furrow”, as its derivative,^[4] while the OLD finds the noun apparently unconnected with it.^[2] Köbler calls its origin unclear.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Varro, of the curved part of a plough;^[4][3] he also discusses it in his work on the Latin language.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed technical: it named the curved piece that joins the plough's share beam to the pole,^[2] with which, as L&S explain, the bounds of cities were marked out.^[3] Festus^[7] and a definition of the jurist Pomponius in the Digest^[3][6] record it, and it appears in the glossaries.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for part of the plough.^[3][6][5]
• 533 AD – The Digest quotes Pomponius on the word.^[3][6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The curved part of a plough, the plough beam.^[2][3][6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier