vadum

Forms

vadum n (genitive vadī); second declension^[1] A masculine vadus appears in Varro (quoted by Servius), Sallust and Fronto.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *waþo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *uh₂dʰ-o-, from the root *weh₂dʰ- (“to advance, wade”) of vādō.^[4][1] Its short vowel matches that of Old High German watan (“to wade”) and Old Norse vaða (“to wade”), while the long vowel of the verb matches Welsh; so de Vaan sets up a root present with ablaut, and perhaps a noun ⟨*uh₂dʰ-o-⟩ already in Proto-Indo-European.^[4] Cognates are wat (“ford”), vað (“ford”) and Old English wæd (“water, lake”).^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Rudens, of a girl thrown from a boat: at in vadōst, iam facile ēnābit, “but she's in shallow water; she'll easily swim out”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Vadum is water shallow enough to wade, a shallow, and in a river a ford: Caesar notes that the Rhône can be crossed by ford in some places.^[2] At sea it is a shoal where ships run aground, and also the bottom or bed of the sea, of wells, drains and rivers (Virgil's Neptune feels the waters stirred from their lowest beds).^[2] Poets use the plural for the waters of sea or river, whatever their depth (Catullus: vada salsa).^[2] Grattius uses it, after Greek, for a passage in the body.^[2] Figuratively a “shallow” can stand for safety or for danger, as for a boat in shallow water.^[1]

Döderlein groups it with solum and fundus as words for the natural ground or bottom of something.^[5] In medieval Latin it is a river crossing or a ferry service.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of shallow water.^[2][7]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of fords in the Rhône.^[2][7]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of the salt waters of the sea.^[2][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the sea bed.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shallow, shallow water; a ford.^[2][1][8]
2. A shoal.^[2][1]
3. The bottom or bed (of the sea, a river, a well).^[2][1]
4. (poetic, usually plural) The waters of sea or river.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) A shallow, as a place of safety or of danger.^[1]
6. (Medieval Latin) A river crossing, a ferry service.^[6]

Word family

• vadōsus

Related words

• vadō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson