villosus

Forms

villōsus (feminine villōsa, neuter villōsum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin villus (“shaggy hair, tuft”) + -ōsus.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Virgil,^[3] but Conte also cites a line from a tragedy of Ennius, of a dog “shaggy with snakes” (angue villosi canis).^[4]

Semantic evolution

It always meant shaggy or hairy.^[2] Virgil uses it of a lion and of Cacus' chest bristling with hair, and Ovid of Cerberus' throats with snakes for hair.^[5][4] Pliny the Elder uses it of a root, has the comparative of a tree and the superlative of the hare, the hairiest of animals.^[5][6]

In British medieval Latin it was also used in anatomy, of the inner surface of the stomach and the womb, and of shaggy or piled cloth; as a feminine noun it named a shaggy towel, as in a letter of Boniface.^[7][8] It survives in Italian villoso.^[4]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a dog shaggy with snakes.^[4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a lion.^[5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of Cerberus.^[5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder calls the hare the hairiest of animals.^[6][3]
• 735 – Boniface mentions a villosa for drying the feet of the servants of God.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Shaggy, hairy.^[2][5]
2. (Medieval Latin, anatomy) Villous.^[7]
3. (Medieval Latin) (of cloth) Shaggy, having a pile.^[7]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A shaggy towel.^[8][7]

References

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