vorax

Forms

vorāx (genitive vorācis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin vorō (“to devour”) + -āx (“inclined to”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan takes vorō to be probably a verb made from a noun or adjective meaning “food” or “devouring”, comparing Ancient Greek βορά (borá, “fodder”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Accius,^[4] who has the “devouring” fire of Vulcan.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Varro calls geese voracious by nature, and Cicero asks what Charybdis was ever so ravenous.^[2] Catullus uses it of an insatiable adulterer and, obscenely, of a son.^[2] Of natural forces it means consuming: fire in Ovid, the sea in Lucan.^[2] It was also said of abstract things that eat up resources, such as costly expenses in Valerius Maximus and usury in Lucan.^[2][5]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the sense gluttonous.^[6] English formed voracious in the 1630s as the adjective to voracity.^[7]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius speaks of the devouring fire of Vulcan.^[2][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro calls geese voracious.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero compares a man to Charybdis.^[2][3]
• 1630s – English forms voracious as the adjective to voracity.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Ravenous, voracious; insatiable.^[2][5]
2. Of fire, the sea and abstract things, consuming, devouring.^[2][5]

Related words

• vorāgō
• dēvorō
• English voracious

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com