vesper

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈwɛs.pɛr]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈvɛs.per]^[1]

Forms

vesper m (genitive vesperī or vesperis); variously declined, second declension, third declension^[1] A feminine vespera is also used, and the locative vesperi means “in the evening”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *we(k)spero-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ue-k(ʷ)sp-er-o- (“evening”), a compound of an element *ue- and a word for “night”, Proto-Indo-European *k(ʷ)sep-.^[4][1]

Cognate with Welsh ucher (“evening”) and Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos, “evening”),^[4][2] and, from the word for “night”, with Hittite išpant- (“night”) and Sanskrit क्षप् (kṣáp-, “night”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,^[4][5] who has a slave say that trouble is ready for the old man “by evening”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant the evening, as in Cicero's man who drank until evening and Caesar's sub vesperum, “towards evening”.^[2][6] It was also the Evening Star, the planet Venus, as in Catullus and Virgil, and the west, the quarter of the evening sky.^[2] From it came vesperna “supper” and vespertilio “bat”.^[4]

In Christian Latin it was the evening office, vespers.^[7][5] It survives as Italian vespro and French vêpres.^[1] English vesper meant the evening star in the late 14th century, and vespers the evening office from the 1610s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the evening.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it for the Evening Star.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses ad vesperum, “till evening”.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it for the west.^[2][5]
• 529 – Church councils use it for the evening office.^[5]
• 1610s – English vespers is first recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The evening.^[2][3]
2. The Evening Star.^[2][1]
3. The west.^[2][1]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Vespers.^[7][5]

Word family

• vesperāscit
• uesperna
• vespertīliō
• vespertīnus
• vesperūgō
• vesperus

Related words

• vespera
• English vesper
• English vespers

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com