discolor Latin · revision 35679

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=ine-pro *ḱel-ōs}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈdɪs.kɔ.ɫɔr]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈdis.ko.lor]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''discolor''' (genitive discolōris); third-declension one-termination adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|dis-|color|t2=colour]],^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) the opposite of [[concolor]] “of the same colour”.^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan traces [[m|la|color]] to [[itc-pro|*kelōs-|t=outside, aspect]] and [[ine-pro|*ḱel-ōs|t=cover, covering]], with a shift of meaning from “covering” to “colour”.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler and Lewis and Short record it first in Cicero, who uses it once, in the Verrines, of things of different colours.^(Köbler 2010)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means “of a different colour”, often with a dative of the thing compared,^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) as in Virgil's gleam of gold showing through the branches of the golden bough,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and with a plural subject “of different colours”: Varro has wax tablets of different colours,^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Ovid the black and white men of a board game.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) From this it came to mean variegated or particoloured, of birds in Pliny the Elder and of clothing in Curtius.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) Horace and Persius transfer it to things unlike in nature: the matron will be unlike the courtesan.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010) The TLL notes that it is often confused with [[dēcolor]].^(TLL) Late writers such as Prudentius made a feminine ''discolora''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it means speckled or many-coloured.^(Stelten 1995) British medieval writers used it for differently coloured or changing faces, for the spotted coat of a leopard, and once for “colourless”.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it once, in the Verrines.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of wax tablets of different colours.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the gold gleaming through the bough.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace uses it for “unlike” in character.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius uses the feminine ''discolora''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Differing in [[m|en|colour]] (from something); with a plural, of different colours.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # [[m|en|variegated|alt=Variegated]], [[m|en|particoloured]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(transferred)'' Different, unlike.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Colourless.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}