recurvus Latin · revision 33401

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=la curvus}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''recurvus''' (feminine ''recurva'', neuter ''recurvum''); first/second-declension adjective^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ Late manuscripts also spell it ''recurbus''.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|re-|curvus|t1=back|t2=curved, bent]].^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) The TLL derives it instead from the verb [[m|la|recurvō|t=to bend back]].^(TLL) De Vaan calls the origin of the simple adjective uncertain: he reconstructs [[itc-pro|*ku/orwo-]] and thinks the best match is a Celtic word for “hooked”, [[sga|corr]], with [[grc|κυρτός|tr=kurtós|t=curved]] perhaps from the same root.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler and the TLL record it first in Virgil,^(Köbler 2010)^(TLL) who uses it once, of a horn.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Lewis & Short call it a poetic word of the Augustan age that also appears in later prose.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ovid has it about fifteen times,^(TLL) of horns, the curved sterns of ships, the fibres of roots, the windings of ivy, fishhooks and a dolphin's back, and of the Labyrinth.^(Lewis & Short 1879) In verse it mostly stands at the end of a hexameter or before the last word of a pentameter.^(TLL) Prose writers use it from Celsus on,^(TLL) and Pliny the Elder uses it of shells.^(Lewis & Short 1879) The OLD also records the neuter used as a noun for a passage that doubles back on itself.^(OLD 2012) British Medieval Latin writers use it of the curved horn of a shepherd's trumpet (Bede), of the curved beaks of hawks and of the shepherd's crook or pastoral staff.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it once, of a horn.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid makes it a common poetic word.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 14–37 AD – Celsus, the first prose author to use it.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of shells.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Medieval Latin – of a shepherd's crook or pastoral staff.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Bent back on itself, [[m|en|curved]] round, [[m|en|hooked]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(neuter as a noun)'' A passage that doubles back on itself.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Of a [[m|en|crook]] or pastoral staff: curved at the top.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[curvus]]

+ * [[curvō]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis & Short give [[reduncus]] and [[repandus]] as synonyms.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}