Etymologically
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vitreus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈwɪ.tre.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈviː.tre.us][1]

Forms

vitreus (feminine vitrea, neuter vitreum); first/second-declension adjective[1] An inscription has the spelling vitrius.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin vitrum (“glass”) + -eus.[2][3][1][4] De Vaan, following Szemerényi, derives the noun from Proto-Italic *wedro- (“glass”) and Proto-Indo-European *ued-ro- (“water-like”), the root of the words for water, with a parallel in Middle Iranian, where the word for glass is made from the word for water.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Varro,[5][4] whose Menippean satires mention togas of a glassy sheen that show the stripes of the tunic beneath.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means made of glass:[2][3] Seneca has mullets kept in glass jars, Ovid a glass piece in a board game, and Columella glass vessels.[2][3] The neuter is used as a noun for a glass article, and the plural for glassware.[2][3] An inscription has ars vitrea, the glassmaker's craft.[2] In poetry it means like glass in its greenish colour, clearness or glitter, above all of the sea and rivers:[2] Virgil has nymphs on glassy seats, Horace the glassy sea, and Columella a glassy river.[2] Horace and Statius call Circe vitrea.[2] From the 1st century AD it can also be a greenish blue colour.[1] Stelten gives "transparent, of glass or porcelain" for Church Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of glassy togas.[2][5][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of glassy seats of nymphs.[2]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of the glassy sea.[2]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of glass jars.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Made of glass;[2][3][1][6] (neuter as noun) a glass article;[2][3][1][6] (neuter plural) glassware.[2][3][1][6]
  2. Like glass in colour, clearness or glitter; glassy, translucent, greenish.[2][1]

Word family

  • vitreārius

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson