armifer Latin · revision 33503

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=43 BC–18 AD, Ovid|origins=ine-pro *h₂(e)r-mo-, ine-pro *bʰer-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈar.mɪ.fɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈar.mi.fer]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''armifer''' (feminine armifera, neuter armiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|arma|-fer|t1=weapons|t2=bearing]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan traces [[m|la|arma]] to [[ine-pro|*h₂(e)r-mo-|t=fitting]], from the root meaning “to join”: its meaning moved from what is fitted together, or tools, to weapons.^(de Vaan 2008) The second part comes from [[m|la|ferō|t=to carry]], from [[ine-pro|*bʰer-]].^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) Cognate with [[grc|ἁρμόζω|tr=harmózō|t=to fit together]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis & Short suggest that Ovid was the first to use it,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and the TLL and Köbler date it from him;^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) he speaks of the crow hated by ''armifera Minerva'', “armed Minerva”.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a poetic word.^(TLL) It first means bearing arms, armed, warlike, as an epithet of Mars and of Minerva.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Statius applies it to anger, “warlike rage”, and so it comes to mean of war, martial.^(OLD 2012) In Seneca's ''Medea'' it describes a field that produces armed men.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of Minerva and Mars.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca, of a field that yields armed men.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 45–96 AD – Statius, of warlike anger.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Bearing [[m|en|arms]], [[m|en|armed]], [[m|en|warlike]];^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) ''deus armifer'', Mars;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) ''dea armifera'', Minerva.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Of war or fighting, [[m|en|martial]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # Producing armed men.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[armiger]]

+ * [[arma]]

+ * [[armō]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis & Short distinguish it from ''armiger'', which mainly means an armour-bearer and only rarely “warlike” in place of ''armifer''.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Manuscripts waver between the two words in Seneca and Statius.^(TLL)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}