zephyrus

Forms

zephyrus m (genitive zephyrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ζέφυρος (zéphuros, “west wind”).^[2][3][4][1] The Greek word is found from Homer on;^[5] it is perhaps related to ζόφος (zóphos, “darkness, the west”), a connection Chantraine called certain but which Beekes leaves open, since the sound changes are hard to explain.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius has the “whistling of the west wind” through hollow reeds, in the 1st century BC.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was mostly a poetic word: Virgil, Horace, Propertius and Ovid use it for the gentle west wind,^[2][3] and Virgil for the wind that marks the start of spring.^[7] Pliny the Elder notes that the wind Romans called favōnius was named Zephyrus by the Greeks.^[2] Ovid and Apuleius personify it as a god.^[2][3] Poets also used it for any wind.^[3][8]

Medieval writers kept it in their lists of the four main winds, beside subsolanus, septentrio and auster.^[9] English took the name as zephyr in the 16th century.^[10]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius writes of the whistling of the west wind in the reeds.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid.^[2][3][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder equates it with the Latin favonius.^[2][6]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in his riddles.^[9][6]
• 16th century – English borrows it as zephyr.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The west wind, a gentle western breeze, a zephyr.^[2][3][7]
2. (personified) Zephyrus, the god of the west wind.^[2][3]
3. (poetic) A wind in general.^[3][8]

Related words

• English zephyr

Usage notes

Lewis & Short note that the native Latin name of this wind was favōnius.^[3] The OLD and Lewis & Short write the word with a capital, as Zephyrus.^[2][3]

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 e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com