vadosus

Forms

vadōsus (feminine vadōsa, neuter vadōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vadum (“shallow water, ford”) + -ōsus.^[2][1] De Vaan traces that noun to Proto-Italic *waþo- and Proto-Indo-European *uh₂dʰ-o-, from a root meaning “to advance”, the source also of vādō (“to go”) and of the Germanic verbs for wading.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Caesar,^[4] who writes in the Civil War that erat vadōsum mare, the sea was full of shallows.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It describes waters with many shallows or fords: Sallust uses it of the Syrtes, Virgil of a river, and Livy of a strait and the mouth of a harbour.^[6][5] Pliny the Elder uses it of a voyage made dangerous by shoals,^[7] and Lucan, in poetry, of restless waters.^[6][7] Solinus has the superlative vadōsissimus.^[6]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense “shallow, fordable”:^[8] Alcuin, in a letter, sets the shallow Loire against the wide Tyrrhenian sea, and a document of 1560 from Ireland tells of a ship driven onto a shallow shore.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of a shallow sea.^[6][4]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of the Syrtes.^[6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls a river vadōsus.^[6][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a voyage through shoals.^[7]
• c. 800 – Alcuin uses it of the river Loire.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of shallows or shoals, shallow; fordable.^[2][6][8]
2. Made dangerous by shoals.^[7]
3. (poetic) Restless (of waters).^[6][7]

Related words

• vadum
• vādō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press