aper Latin · revision 31021

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *h₁pr-o-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈa.pɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.per]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''aper''' ''m'' (genitive aprī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*apro-|t=boar]], [[inh|ine-pro|*h₁pr-o-]].^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[xum|abrunu|t=boar]], [[lv|vepris|t=castrated boar]], [[cu|вепръ|tr=veprŭ|t=boar]] and [[goh|ebur|t=boar]];^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) de Vaan sets up a different ablaut grade, [[m|ine-pro|*h₁ep-r-]], for the Germanic forms.^(de Vaan 2008) Varro derived it from ⟨asper⟩, since boars live in rough places.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler give Plautus as its first author.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) In the ''Casina'' a character boasts that he will catch two boars in one wood.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the wild boar, hunted, as the Erymanthian boar that Hercules killed, and eaten: Horace says that the ancients praised rank boar's flesh, and Juvenal makes it a delicacy.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Proverbs used it: to catch two boars in one wood was to kill two birds with one stone, and letting boars into clear springs, in Virgil, stood for a perverse, thoughtless act.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny the Elder records the boar among the old standards of the legions, and it was also the name of a fish.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “wild boar”, as in the Psalm's ''aper dē silvā'', the boar out of the wood.^(Stelten 1995)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in a proverb.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of the Erymanthian boar.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of boar's meat.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of a legionary standard.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A wild [[m|en|boar]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Boar's flesh, as food.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The figure of a boar used as a military [[m|en|standard]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A kind of fish.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[apra]]

+ * [[aprarius]]

+ * [[apriculus]]

+ * [[aprinus]]

+ * [[aprugineus]]

+ * [[aprūgnus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[verrēs]]

+ * [[sūs]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Ūnō in saltū duōs aprōs capere'', “to catch two boars in one wood”, was the Latin for killing two birds with one stone.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) A female boar is ''apra'' in Pliny, though Varro uses ''aper'' of the sow.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}