uxorius

Forms

uxōrius (feminine uxōria, neuter uxōrium); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin uxor (“wife”) + -ius.^[2][1] De Vaan traces uxor to Proto-Italic *uksor-, with a cognate in Faliscan uxor (“wife”);^[3] its further origin is unclear, and he rejects the explanations that have been proposed.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] in whom a wife's spending, sumptus uxorius, goes on saffron dresses and breast-bands.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is of or belonging to a wife.^[2][5] The phrase rēs uxōria means the married state, as when Terence speaks of a young man averse to marriage, and also a wife's property, a matter in which Cicero discusses the arbitration.^[2][5] Festus explains a neuter uxōrium as a payment made by a man who had no wife.^[2] It also means too fond of one's wife, as in a reproach in Virgil: “do you, uxorius, lay the foundations of Carthage and build a fine city?”^[2] A declamation ascribed to Quintilian uses the neuter plural for love potions meant to cause such fondness.^[2] In Church Latin it is simply pertaining to a wife,^[6] and in medieval texts conjugal or matrimonial.^[7] English uxorious (1590s) took the sense “excessively fond of or submissive to one's wife”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a wife's expenses.^[2][3][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, rēs uxōria, marriage.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil, in a reproach for building Carthage.^[2][8]
• 1590s – Borrowed into English as uxorious.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a wife;^[2][5][1] rēs uxōria, marriage, or a wife's property.^[2][5]
2. Too fond of one's wife, uxorious, doting.^[2][1][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) Conjugal, matrimonial.^[7]

Related words

• uxor
• English uxorious

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de