semifer Latin · revision 34445

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=la sēmi-, la ferus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

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

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

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sēmifer''' (feminine sēmifera, neuter sēmiferum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sēmi-|ferus|t1=half|t2=wild]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) The prefix goes back to [[itc-pro|*sēmi-]] and to [[ine-pro|*sēm-i|t=in one]], a locative whose meaning shifted from “in one” to “one of the two” and then to “half”.^(de Vaan 2008) The adjective goes back to [[itc-pro|*χwero-]] and [[ine-pro|*ǵʰueh₁r-|t=wild animal]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The earliest uses the OLD records are in Cicero's translation of Aratus, of the half-beast body of Capricorn, and in Lucretius, of Pan's half-animal head;^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) Köbler dates it from Virgil.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It describes creatures that are half human and half beast.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) As a noun it names a centaur, Chiron in Ovid and Statius,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and Virgil uses it of Cacus^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and of the chest of a Triton.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Mela calls the Aegipanes hardly men and rather half-beasts, and Pliny the Elder reports half-beast offspring of men and wild animals in India.^(OLD 2012) Grattius uses it of a breed of dogs crossed with wild animals.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In a transferred sense it means half-savage, of a race of men in Pliny and of men in Silius Italicus, and half-wild, of the dormouse in Pliny.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Medieval writers in Britain used it of half-monsters such as Triton and the centaurs, and of half-savage people.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the constellation Capricorn.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the head of Pan.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Cacus.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of half-savage peoples and of the dormouse.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Half man and half beast, half-bestial.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+ # Half-[[m|en|savage]], brutish; of animals, half-wild.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A creature half man and half beast, especially a [[m|en|centaur]].^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sēmihomō]]

+ * [[ferus]]

+ * [[fera]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}