Etymologically
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zona

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈzoː.na][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈd͡zɔː.na][1]

Forms

zōna f (genitive zōnae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ζώνη (zṓnē, “belt, girdle”).[2][3][1] The Greek word comes from Proto-Indo-European *yoh₃snéh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₃s- (“to gird”).[1][4] Isidore of Seville already called it a Greek word, equal to Latin cingulum.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it of a man's girdle, in a line where someone is told to take a tunic and a girdle.[2][4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[4] One Plautine manuscript reading has the spelling sōna.[6]

Semantic evolution

It was a girdle worn by men to hold up the tunic, often with a pouch for money, and a woman's girdle; a girl's girdle stood for her virginity, so to loosen it meant to lose it, as in Catullus.[2][7] From the astronomers it took the sense of the five bands circling the sky and the earth, in Virgil's quinque tenent caelum zonae.[2][8] It was also any encircling band, as on onyx in Pliny, and in Scribonius Largus the illness shingles.[2]

In medieval British Latin it was still a belt or girdle, and also a girth for a horse.[9] English zone is recorded in the late 14th century as a belt, from the Latin geographical and celestial sense.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a man's girdle.[2][4]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses the loosened girdle for loss of virginity.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil names the five celestial zones.[2][4]
  • c. 47 AD – Scribonius Largus uses it of shingles.[2][4]
  • late 14th century – Borrowed into English as zone.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A girdle or belt worn by men, often holding money.[2][6]
  2. A woman's girdle; a girl's girdle as a sign of virginity.[2][7]
  3. One of the five zones of the sky and earth.[2][8]
  4. An encircling band or marking.[2]
  5. (medicine) shingles.[2]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A girth for a horse.[9]

Word family

  • zōnālis
  • zōnārius
  • zōnātim
  • zōnula
  • septizōnium
  • cingulum
  • English zone

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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