phoca Latin · revision 36407

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=70–19 BC, Virgil|origins=grc φώκη}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈpʰoː.ka]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɔː.ka]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''phōca''' ''f'' (genitive phōcae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+ The Greek form ''phōcē'' (genitive ''phōcēs'') is also used.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|φώκη|tr=phṓkē|t=seal]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Saalfeld 1874) Beekes calls the Greek word, found from Homer on, isolated, and thinks that the name of a sea animal may well be Pre-Greek.^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Its first known use is in Virgil's ''Georgics'', where seals flee into the rivers.^(TLL)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a poetic word from Virgil and Ovid on, used in prose by Pliny the Elder, Solinus and Servius.^(TLL) The native Latin name was ''vitulus marīnus'', “sea calf”: Pliny the Elder writes that the sea calves called ''phōcae'' breathe and sleep on land.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Ovid has ugly seals lying on the mountains in the flood, and tells of a grandson of Cephisus whom Apollo changed into a seal.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL) Valerius Flaccus has Proteus drive a team of seals over the sea.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Manilius says that people born under the constellation Cetus will shut seals in pens.^(TLL)

+

+ In medieval British sources it named the seal and also, by confusion, the porpoise and a kind of flatfish;^(DMLBS) Gerald of Wales says he saw seals raise their bodies above the waves at the sound of a harp.^(DMLBS) Wiktionary lists [[m|it|foca]], [[m|fr|phoque]] and [[m|es|foca]] among the Romance words that continue or borrow it.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the ''Georgics''.^(TLL)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid writes of seals on the mountains in the flood.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the seals “sea calves”.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * first half of 3rd century AD – Solinus says seals are almost the only large sea beast in the Black Sea.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|seal]] (the animal).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|porpoise]]; a [[m|en|flounder]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[vitulus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}