uxor

Forms

uxor f (genitive uxōris); third declension^[1] Inscriptions spell it uxsor, oxor and uoxor.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *uksōr (“wife”), of unknown origin.^[1][4] Compare Faliscan uxor (“wife”).^[4] De Vaan dismisses the proposals: ⟨*uks-or-⟩ “inseminated one”, from the root of Sanskrit उक्षन् (ukṣán, “bull”) (also compared by the OLD, with the English word ox), ⟨*uǵʰ-sor-⟩ “woman who is conveyed”, and a change of meaning from “ox” to “wife”.^[4][2] Wiktionary mentions attempts to link it with Latvian uõsis (“father-in-law”) and Lithuanian uošvė (“mother-in-law”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Livius Andronicus;^[5] de Vaan from Naevius.^[4] Plautus has licuit uxōrem dōtātam dūcere, “I could have married a wife with a dowry”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Uxor is a wife;^[2][3] uxōrem dūcere “to lead home a wife” is the usual phrase for a man's marrying.^[2][3] From it come uxōrius “of a wife” and Plautus' uxorcula “little wife”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 280–200 BC – First found in Livius Andronicus.^[5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: uxōrem dōtātam dūcere.^[3][5]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses uxor opposite marītus.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wife, spouse.^[2][3][1][7]
2. uxōrem dūcere, to marry (of a man).^[3]

Word family

• inuxorus
• uxorcula
• uxōrius

Related words

• coniūnx
• marītus
• mulier

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes uxor, a wife in relation to the man who married her (opposite marītus), from coniūnx, a spouse as half of a pair and on a par with the husband;^[6] uxor suits an ordinary marriage, coniūnx a marriage of people of rank, like English “consort”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson