quadrupes Latin · revision 33944

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=c. 450 BC, Twelve Tables}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈkʷa.drʊ.peːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈkʷaː.dru.pes]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''quadrupēs''' (genitive quadrupedis); third-declension one-termination adjective^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''quadripēs''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a compound of [[m|la|quadri-|t=four]] and [[m|la|pēs|t=foot]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary takes it to be inherited from [[itc-pro|*kʷetrupōts]].^(Wiktionary) Umbrian has the same compound, [[xum|peturpursus|t=to quadrupeds]], from ⟨*kwetur-pōd-⟩.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from the Twelve Tables.^(Köbler 2010) The OLD's first citation is an old law on someone who wrongfully kills a slave or a four-footed beast, and Ennius' ''Annals'' has horsemen and elephants hurling themselves forward.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ As an adjective it means four-footed, as in Celsus' every four-footed animal born at home, and going on four legs: Ennius uses ''quadrupēs eques'' for cavalry, Ovid has a baby that soon goes on all fours, and Pliny the Elder satyrs that run now on four legs, now upright.^(OLD 2012) Apuleius uses it of a galloping pace.^(OLD 2012) As a noun it is a four-footed creature: Cicero calls someone the vilest servant not only of all two-footed but of all four-footed beings, and Livy has people eating the flesh of every kind of animal.^(OLD 2012) It often means a domestic animal, as in Lucretius and in Ulpian's law on damage done by animals,^(OLD 2012) and in poetry a horse: Virgil has a horse rearing and beating the air with its hooves.^(OLD 2012) Stelten gives "four-footed animal" for Church Latin.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|quadruped]] came from it through French in the 1640s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables.^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius of cavalry.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius of domestic animals.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of all four-footed beings.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of a rearing horse.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 1640s – [[m|en|quadruped]] appears in English.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Four-footed, four-legged.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Going on four legs;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) ''(of people)'' on all fours;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) ''(of movement)'' galloping.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A four-footed creature, [[m|en|quadruped]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # A domestic animal;^(OLD 2012) ''(poetic)'' a [[m|en|horse]].^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[quadrupedātim]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pēs]]

+ * [[quattuor]]

+ * [[bipēs]]

+ * [[en|quadruped]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}