bufo Latin · revision 6809

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=Virgil}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈbuː.foː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈbuː.fo]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''būfō''' ''m'' (genitive būfōnis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its intervocalic ⟨f⟩ shows that it is a loan from another Italic dialect.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline) It seems to have meant any small creeping animal: Servius glosses it as a land frog, while another gloss calls it a wood mouse.^(de Vaan 2008) The OLD and Etymonline compare [[prg|gabawo|t=toad]] and words for frog from [[ine-pro|*gʷebʰ-]], but de Vaan doubts the connection.^(OLD 2012)^(Etymonline)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Virgil, whose Georgics name it among the pests of the threshing floor; it is a hapax there.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Gaffiot 2016)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Köbler dates Virgil 70–19 BC.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Classical Latin has it only in Virgil, as a toad.^(OLD 2012)^(de Vaan 2008) In Medieval Latin it remained the toad, and also took the sense “buffoon, clown”.^(DMLBS)^(Niermeyer 1976) It survives in Italian ''buffone'' “jester”.^(Wiktionary) [[en|bufo]] was borrowed for the toad genus.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it once, of a toad.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|toad]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|buffoon]], clown.^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rāna]]

+ * [[en|bufo]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}