caverna Latin · revision 32378

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=ine-pro *ḱowH-ó-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kaˈwɛr.na]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [kaˈvɛr.na]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''caverna''' ''f'' (genitive cavernae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is formed from [[m|la|cavus|t=hollow]] with the ending [[m|la|-erna]], after the model of [[m|la|cisterna]], [[m|la|taberna]] and [[m|la|lanterna]].^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008) De Vaan traces [[m|la|cavus]] to [[itc-pro|*kawo-]] and [[ine-pro|*ḱowH-ó-|t=hollow]], comparing [[sga|cúa|t=hollow]] and [[grc|κοῖλος|tr=koîlos|t=hollow]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Varro and Lucretius;^(de Vaan 2008) Varro, in his ''Menippean Satires'', speaks of the golden vaults of the sky.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a hollow or cavity in the earth, a cave, as in Cicero's “we draw iron from the caverns of the earth”;^(OLD 2012) Phaedrus has a cat giving birth in a hollow oak.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder uses it of the burrows of animals, of the holes in the body and of a cavity in a tooth.^(OLD 2012) Things with a great hollow inside are called cavernae: the vault of the sky, the hold of a ship in Cicero, the belly of the wooden horse in Virgil, and the depths of the sea.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Church Latin glosses it cave or cavern.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro of the vaults of heaven.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius of caverns in the earth.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of the hollow of the wooden horse.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * late 14th century – English [[m|en|cavern]] is borrowed through French.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A hollow or cavity in the earth, a [[m|en|cave]], [[m|en|cavern]]; a hollow in a tree.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A hole or [[m|en|burrow]] in which an animal lives.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A hole, aperture; an orifice of the body.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The vault of the sky; the celestial sphere.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The hold of a ship; the inside of something hollow.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cavernātim]]

+ * [[cavernō]]

+ * [[cavernōsus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cavātus]]

+ * [[cavō]]

+ * [[cavōsitās]]

+ * [[cavus]]

+ * [[en|cavern]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Döderlein groups it with [[specus]]: both are cavities underground or level with the ground, but specus has a long, narrow opening and caverna a round one, while [[spelunca]] stresses darkness and dread and [[antrum]] the beauty of a grotto.^(Döderlein 1874)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}