ebur Latin · revision 31414

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=egy ꜣbw}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈɛ.bʊr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.bur]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ebur''' ''n'' (genitive eboris); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Quintilian reports that the grammarian Antonius Gnipho proposed a plural ''ebura''.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a foreign word, probably [[bor|egy|ꜣbw|t=elephant, ivory]], perhaps through a Demotic form.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) The TLL also compares the Coptic word for “elephant”,^(TLL) and Lewis and Short connect Sanskrit [[m|sa|इभ|tr=ibha|t=elephant]] and Greek [[m|grc|ἐλέφας|tr=eléphas|t=ivory, elephant]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Servius and Isidore of Seville derived it from ⟨barrus⟩, a word for the elephant.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler gives Plautus,^(Köbler 2010) who has “you might as well ask to whiten ivory with ink” in the ''Mostellaria'';^(OLD 2012) Ennius has a house fitted with gold and ivory.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is ivory, as in Ennius' furnished house, and the ivory of the false gate of dreams, after Homer, as in Statius; it is a type of whiteness and the colour of ivory, as in Plautus.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is an elephant's tusk, as Silius' spear tipped with ivory, and by extension the elephant itself.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) It is also something made of ivory: ivory objects polished with radish in Pliny the Elder, an ivory statue, as Virgil's ivory weeping in the temples, and the curule chair of a magistrate, as Horace's ivory that the people give and take away.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Church Latin keeps it as “ivory”.^(Stelten 1995) Köbler finds it in the Bible and Hrabanus Maurus.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of whitening ivory.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius of a house fitted with ivory.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of weeping ivory statues.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of the ivory curule chair.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|ivory|alt=Ivory]]; ivory colour.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # An elephant's [[m|en|tusk]];^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) ''(figuratively)'' an [[m|en|elephant]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An object made of ivory: an ivory statue; the [[m|en|curule]] chair.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[eborārius]]

+ * [[eboreus]]

+ * [[eburātus]]

+ * [[eburneus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[elephantus]]

+ * [[barrus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}