canities Latin · revision 32851

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81/79–52/50 BC, Catullus|origins=ine-pro *ḱh₁s-no-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cānitiēs''' ''f'' (genitive cānitiēī); fifth declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Pliny the Elder has ''cānitia''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|cānus|-itiēs|t1=grey, hoary]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan traces [[m|la|cānus]] to [[itc-pro|*kasno-|t=grey]] and [[ine-pro|*ḱh₁s-no-|t=grey]], the root of the word for the hare in other languages, as [[ang|hara|t=hare]] and [[sa|शश|tr=śaśá|t=hare]].^(de Vaan 2008) Isidore derived it from [[m|la|candor|t=whiteness]], as if ⟨candities⟩.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL dates it from Catullus.^(TLL) Catullus has grey hair sullied with earth.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a white or grey colour, as of feathers in Ovid and of a wolf's coat.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Usually it is greyness of the hair, implying old age, and grey hair itself; by metonymy it is old age, as in Virgil, and old people.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder uses it of the down on plants and of a white deposit of salt, and has the form ⟨cānitia⟩.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Lewis & Short call it poetic or post-Augustan prose, and the TLL notes it is rare in prose.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Church Latin glosses it old age, grey hair.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of grey hair.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of old age.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of grey feathers and of his own grey hair.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of down on plants.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A white or grey colour, [[m|en|hoariness]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Greyness of the hair; grey hair.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # By metonymy, [[m|en|old age]]; old people.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # [[m|en|down|alt=Down]] on plants; a white deposit of salt.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[canus|alt=cānus]]

+ * [[canesco|alt=cānēscō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}