balatus Latin · revision 35913
20 Oct 2026, 20:04 by bogdan “New Latin entry (la10k)” current version
Initial text
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=96–55 BC, Lucretius|origins=la bālō}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * Classical: [baːˈɫaː.tʊs]^(Wiktionary)
+ * Ecclesiastical: [baˈlaː.tus]^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Forms==
+ '''bālātus''' ''m'' (genitive bālātūs); fourth declension^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[af|la|bālō|-tus|t1=to bleat]], an action noun of the fourth declension.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan treats [[m|la|bālō]] as imitative: the rendering of a sheep's bleating wavers between ⟨ā⟩ and ⟨ē⟩ in the Indo-European languages, and the suffix ⟨-lāre⟩ was probably taken over from [[m|la|ululō|t=to howl]].^(de Vaan 2008)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Lewis and Short cite it first in Lucretius, of the bleating of sheep,^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010) and Köbler dates it from Virgil.^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It is the bleating of sheep, and of goats:^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Virgil has lambs that keep up their bleating in the ''Aeneid'' and uses it in the ''Georgics'',^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) and Ovid, Statius and Pliny the Elder use it too, Pliny of goats.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) The plural appears in Ovid and in later writers such as Solinus and Jerome.^(Georges 1913) Petronius has the phrase ''balatum ducere'' for drawing a bleat out of someone, that is, striking them in the face.^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010)
+
+ British medieval writers use it also of lowing and of the howling of dogs.^(DMLBS) It continues in Italian ''belato''.^(Conte 2010)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the bleating of sheep.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of bleating lambs.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * before 66 AD – Petronius uses the phrase ''balatum ducere''.^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of goats.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # A [[m|en|bleat]], bleating, especially of sheep, also of goats.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)
+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' [[m|en|lowing]]; howling.^(DMLBS)
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[bālō]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}