cothurnus Latin · revision 34000

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 280–200 BC, Livius Andronicus|origins=grc κόθορνος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kɔˈtʰʊr.nʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [koˈtur.nus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cothurnus''' ''m'' (genitive cothurnī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''coturnus''.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|κόθορνος|tr=kóthornos]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) Köbler takes the Greek word itself for a loanword, perhaps from Lydian.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The OLD's first citation is a line of Livius Andronicus, quoted by Terentianus Maurus, that tells someone to lace the calves into a purple hunting boot.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a high boot or buskin, laced up the front and covering the whole foot: Virgil's Diana wears a red one for hunting, Velleius and Tacitus have it as the dress of Bacchus, and Pliny the Elder and Juvenal mention it too.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Above all it is the thick-soled boot of tragic actors, which made them look taller, as against the ''soccus'' of comedy.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) From this it stands for the style of tragedy, for tragic poetry and the tragic stage:^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Propertius speaks of composing words in the buskin of Aeschylus, Horace of iambics taken up by both the sock and the buskin, and Quintilian of the buskin and sound of Sophocles.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder even uses it of grandeur in painting.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ammianus Marcellinus uses it of the majesty of imperial authority,^(Lewis & Short 1879) and in medieval Latin it means pride or arrogance.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 280–200 BC – Livius Andronicus of a purple boot.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of a boot that fits the foot.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil of a hunting boot.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of the tragic boot and of tragedy.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * c. 390 AD – Ammianus Marcellinus of imperial majesty.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A high laced boot, [[m|en|buskin]], especially a hunting boot.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The thick-soled boot of tragic actors.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(figurative)'' The elevated style of [[m|en|tragedy]]; tragic poetry, the tragic stage; grandeur.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' Majesty, dignity.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' [[m|en|pride|alt=Pride]], arrogance.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cothurnatio]]

+ * [[cothurnātus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}