piceus Latin · revision 35903

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=la pix}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈpɪ.ke.ʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈpiː.t͡ʃe.us]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''piceus''' (feminine picea, neuter piceum); first/second-declension adjective^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|pix|-eus|t1=pitch]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) That noun goes back to [[itc-pro|*pik-]] and [[ine-pro|*pik-|t=pitch]], and is cognate with [[grc|πίσσα|tr=píssa|t=pitch]], [[lt|pìkis]] and [[lv|piķis|t=pitch]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in Virgil,^(Köbler 2010) who uses it in the ''Georgics'' of a pitch-black darkness.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant both “made of pitch, resinous” and “like pitch”, above all in colour.^(OLD 2012) In the first sense Ovid has drops of resin from cut bark and Lucan torches smeared with pitchy grease, and Seneca, Lucan and Silius Italicus use it of smoky flames.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)^(Georges 1913) In the second, Virgil has a pitch-black whirlwind, Ovid a pitch-black cloud, Pliny the Elder a thick black rain, Valerius Flaccus black sheep and Martial black teeth;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Apuleius sets pitch-black against snow-white,^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) and Ambrose has the pitch-black gloom of thickened air.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ British medieval writers used it of pitchy, smoky places of punishment, of a pitch-black colour, and figuratively of wicked people and things, as when a letter of 799 calls a heretic ''piceus''.^(DMLBS) Used as a feminine noun it became [[picea]], the tree.^(Wiktionary)^(DMLBS) It lives on in Italian [[m|it|piceo]].^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a pitch-black darkness and whirlwind.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of drops of resin.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it of pitchy torches and flames.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 40–102/103 AD – Martial writes of black teeth.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of pitch-black soot.^(DMLBS)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 799 AD – A letter in Alcuin's correspondence calls a heretic ''piceus''.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Made of [[m|en|pitch]], pitchy, [[m|en|resinous]];^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) (of flames) pitchy, smoky.^(OLD 2012)

+ # Like pitch in colour or substance, [[m|en|pitch-black]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Black in spirit, [[m|en|wicked]], corrupt.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[picea]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[pix]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}