tetricus Latin · revision 34154

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=116–27 BC, Varro}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈtɛ.trɪ.kʊs], [ˈtɛt.rɪ.kʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛː.tri.kus], [ˈtɛt.ri.kus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tetricus''' (feminine tetrica, neuter tetricum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is uncertain.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Lewis & Short treat it as a form of ⟨taetricus⟩, from [[m|la|taeter|t=foul, repulsive]],^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary) but the OLD thinks it probably not connected with that word,^(OLD 2012) and Wiktionary points out that poets scan its first syllable short.^(Wiktionary) Walde and Hofmann and Pokorny related it to [[m|la|terō|t=to rub]], and Köbler compares the root [[ine-pro|*ter-|t=to rub, bore]];^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) de Vaan finds this semantically unconvincing and knows no good etymology.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan records it first in Varro,^(de Vaan 2008) who has it in his ''Menippean Satires'' of a stern woman.^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means frowning, stern, severe, of persons and their looks, words and ways:^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Ovid uses it of a girl,^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010) Livy speaks of the ''tetrica'' discipline of the old Sabines,^(Georges 1913) and Seneca uses it too.^(Conte 2010) Martial extends it to harsh things, lawsuits, fevers, war trumpets and the Fates.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Of places it means rugged or forbidding, and ''Tetrica'' or ''Tetrica rūpēs'' is a steep mountain on the borders of the Sabine and Picene lands, named by Varro, Virgil and Silius Italicus.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010) In Ecclesiastical Latin it means harsh, severe, gloomy,^(Stelten 1995) and medieval writers in Britain use it of grim and gloomy things, of anger, and of darkness, as Alcuin of the gloomy darkness of ignorance.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a stern woman and names the mountain ''Tetrica''.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Georges 1913)^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil has ''Tetricae horrentis rūpēs''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of fevers and trumpets.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 672 – Aldhelm writes of the ''tetrica'' problems of the heavenly library.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|frowning|alt=Frowning]], [[m|en|stern]], [[m|en|severe]], [[m|en|gloomy]] (of a person, his looks, words or actions).^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # (poetic) Harsh, grim (of conditions and things).^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # Rugged, forbidding (of places); ''Tetrica (rūpēs)'', a steep mountain on the Sabine and Picene border.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[tetricitās]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[taeter]]

+ * [[sevērus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}