amplexus Latin · revision 31188

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=96–55 BC, Lucretius|origins=ine-pro *pleḱ-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [amˈpɫɛk.sʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [amˈplɛk.sus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''amplexus''' ''m'' (genitive amplexūs); fourth declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[m|la|amplector|t=to embrace]] with the noun suffix [[m|la|-tus]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan explains ⟨amplector⟩ as [[m|la|amb-|t=around]] and [[m|la|plectō|t=to plait]], from [[itc-pro|*plekt-]] and [[ine-pro|*pleḱ-t-|t=to plait, twine]], cognate with [[grc|πλέκω|tr=plékō|t=to braid, twine]] and [[cu|плести|tr=plesti|t=to plait]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler gives Lucretius as its first author,^(Köbler 2010) who has ''amplexū terrārum'', “the embrace of the lands”.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a clasping with the arms or hands, an embrace, also a sexual embrace, as in a speech of Caelius, and the encircling coils of a snake, as Cicero's boy found asleep “wrapped in a snake's coils”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Especially in poetry and in geography it is the embrace or circuit of a place, as Cicero's harbours enclosed “in the embrace” of a city.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “an embrace”.^(Stelten 1995) Köbler finds it in Bede and in charters.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the embrace of the lands.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of a snake's coils and of a city's circuit.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|embrace]], clasp; a sexual embrace;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995) ''(plural)'' caresses.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # The coils (of a snake).^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An encircling, circuit, [[m|en|circumference]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[amplector]]

+ * [[plectō]]

+ * [[complexus]]

+ * [[ōsculum]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}