veternus

Forms

veternus m (genitive veternī); second declension^[1] As an adjective, veternus, -a, -um “old” is post-classical.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin vetus (“old”),^[4][5] according to the OLD probably with the suffix of hesternus (“of yesterday”);^[4] Wiktionary analyses it as the stem ⟨veter-⟩ with -nus.^[1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *wetos- (“year”) and Proto-Indo-European *uet-os- (“year”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[5][6] meaning a morbid torpor: num eum veternus aut aqua intercus tenet?, “does lethargy or dropsy have hold of him?”^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Lethargy was regarded as a disease of the old, and the word is used both of the illness and of drowsiness or sloth in general.^[2][3] Catullus wants to rouse someone from his stolid torpor, Horace and Virgil use it of sluggishness, and Caelius writes to Cicero that a torpor has seized the state.^[4][2][3][7] Pliny the Elder uses it of the long winter sleep of bears.^[2][3] Statius uses it of old age, Columella and Apuleius of dirt left by age or neglect, and Tacitus of the mustiness of Accius.^[4][7]

In Late Latin it is also an adjective, “old, ancient”, in Prudentius and Fulgentius.^[2][3] Ammianus writes of a man carried off by lethargy.^[3] British medieval writers use it of lethargy, of a plant's dormancy and as an adjective “old”; a glossary renders it “jaundice”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a morbid torpor.^[4][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of torpor.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of sluggishness in the Georgics.^[2][7][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the winter sleep of bears.^[2][6]
• c. 45–96 AD – Statius uses it of old age.^[4][6]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses it as an adjective, “ancient”.^[2][3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A morbid state of torpor, lethargy;^[4][2] (figurative) drowsiness, sloth.^[4][2]
2. Old age.^[4]
3. Dirt accumulated through age or neglect;^[4][7] (figurative) mustiness.^[4][7]
4. (Medieval Latin) Jaundice (in a gloss).^[8]

Adjective

1. (Late Latin) Old, ancient.^[2][3][7]

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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