semivir Latin · revision 34319

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=la sēmi-, la vir}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈseː.mɪ.wɪr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈsɛː.mi.vir]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sēmivir''' ''m'' (genitive sēmivirī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sēmi-|vir|t1=half|t2=man]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) [[m|la|sēmi-|alt=Sēmi-]] goes back to [[ine-pro|*sēm-i|t=in one]], a locative whose meaning shifted to “one of the two” and then “half”; it is cognate with [[grc|ἡμι-|tr=hēmi-|t=half]].^(de Vaan 2008) [[m|la|vir|alt=Vir]] goes back to [[itc-pro|*wiro-]] and [[ine-pro|*uiH-ró-|t=man, young man, warrior]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis and Short say it is not found before the Augustan age.^(Lewis & Short 1879) The earliest instance the OLD quotes is in Virgil, of Paris with his ''semivir comitatus'', “half-man retinue”, the sense of effeminate men.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means a half-man and is used both as a noun and as an adjective.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ovid applies it to mythical beings half man and half beast: the Minotaur, ''semibovemque virum semivirumque bovem'', the centaur Nessus, and Chiron, “half-man and mixed with the body of a tawny horse”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ovid and Pliny the Elder use it of a hermaphrodite.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Of men lacking virility it was said of eunuchs, as the half-man band of Cybele in Martial and in Seneca, Valerius Flaccus, Silius, Juvenal and Apuleius,^(OLD 2012) and of effeminate men in Virgil, Livy, Lucan and Statius.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil speaks of Paris' ''semivir comitatus''.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the Minotaur, Nessus and Chiron.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it beside hermaphrodites and eunuchs.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of a self-castrated man.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|half-man]]; a being half man and half beast, as a [[m|en|centaur]] or the [[m|en|Minotaur]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|hermaphrodite]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|eunuch]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Half-human; [[m|en|unmanly]], [[m|en|effeminate]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sēmimās]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Lewis and Short give ''sēmihomo'' and [[sēmimās]] as equivalents.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}