letifer Latin · revision 34277

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=81/79–52/50 BC, Catullus|origins=la lētum, la ferō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈɫeː.tɪ.fɛr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈlɛː.ti.fer]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''lētifer''' (feminine lētifera, neuter lētiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^(Wiktionary)

+ Also spelled ''lēthifer''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|lētum|-fer|t1=death|t2=bearing]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan suggests that [[m|la|lētum]] is a substantivized past participle [[ine-pro|*leh1-to-|t=let go]], from “letting go” to “death”.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLL records it from Catullus on,^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) who has ''letifero belli certamine'', “in the deadly contest of war”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It means death-bringing.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means bringing death, fatal, deadly, chiefly in poetry: Virgil has a deadly year and a death-dealing bow, Ovid a deadly blow and a deadly garment, and Statius a deadly snake.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) In prose the TLL finds it first in Columella, who uses it of rabies.^(TLL) Juvenal applies it to autumn.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In Medieval Latin it meant leading to the perdition of the soul,^(Niermeyer 1976) and in British sources it is also used as a noun for the devil, “the deadly one”.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has ''letifero belli certamine''.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a year and of a bow.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – Columella is the first to use it in prose.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Bringing death, [[m|en|deadly]], [[m|en|fatal]], death-dealing.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Leading to the [[m|en|perdition]] of the soul.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin, as a noun)'' The deadly one, the [[m|en|devil]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[lētālis]]

+ * [[lētō]]

+ * [[lētum]]

+ * [[mortifer]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}