vulnus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈwʊɫ.nʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈvul.nus]^[1]

Forms

vulnus n (genitive vulneris); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Italic *welanos, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *welh₃- (“to hit”), and cognate with vellō “to pluck”.^[1][2] The OLD compares, with doubt, Welsh gweli (“wound”), Old Norse valr (“the slain”) and Ancient Greek οὐλή (oulḗ, “scar”).^[3] It is also spelled ⟨volnus⟩, as in Plautus and Terence.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of a wound.^[3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a wound, as Caesar's “many wounds given and received”, and in Virgil a wound caused by something or a wound of love, and poetically the wounds a weapon carries.^[3][5] In Ovid it meant damage to things, and in Cicero a mental or emotional hurt and an injury to one's interests or the state.^[3] Döderlein explains that vulnus and plāga are wounds from outside, vulnus from a weapon or cutting tool, plāga from a blow, while ulcus is a sore from within.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant wound, injury, blow, disaster.^[7] Its verb vulnerāre “to wound” is the source, through Late Latin vulnerābilis, of English vulnerable, recorded about 1600.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a wound.^[3][4]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of wounds in battle.^[5][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of emotional hurt.^[3][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the wound of love.^[3][4]
• c. 1600 – English vulnerable is recorded, from vulnerābilis.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wound; a wound of love.^[3]
2. Damage to a thing.^[3]
3. An emotional hurt.^[3]
4. An injury to one's interests; a disaster.^[3][7]

Word family

• vulnerārius
• vulnerō
• vulnifer
• vulnificō
• vulnificus
• uulnusculum

Related words

• vulnerābilis
• vulnerātiō
• vulnerātor
• ulcus
• vellō
• plāga
• English vulnerable

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com