caballus Latin · revision 730

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [kaˈbal.lʊs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kaˈbal.lus]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''caballus''' ''m'' (genitive caballī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a loanword, but its ultimate source is unclear.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Greek has [[grc|καβάλλης|tr=kabállēs|t=nag]] and a word for a workhorse from the 3rd century BC, too early to come from Latin, and Beekes takes the word to be an Asian loan, comparing a Persian word for a horse of mixed blood.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) Köbler and others derive it from Celtic,^(Köbler 2010)^(Wiktionary) and the OLD compares [[cu|кобыла|tr=kobyla|t=mare]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Isidore of Seville explained it from [[cavo|alt=cavāre]] “to hollow”, because its hoof hollows the ground.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in Lucilius, in the late 2nd century BC,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who speaks of ugly, slow nags.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Classical Latin it was a word for a workhorse or [[m|en|nag]], used by Lucilius, Horace, Seneca and Petronius, while ''[[equus]]'' remained the normal word for a horse.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL) Horace's proverb ''optat arare caballus'' “the nag longs to plough” says that no one is content with his lot, and Juvenal jokingly calls Pegasus ''Gorgoneus caballus''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In everyday speech it came to mean simply a horse,^(Georges 1913)^(TLL) and medieval writers use it in that general sense.^(Niermeyer 1976) It survives in every branch of Romance as the ordinary word for a horse, as French ''cheval'', Italian ''cavallo'' and Spanish ''caballo''.^(DÉRom)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of slow nags.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace rides his ''caballus'' and coins the proverb of the nag that wants to plough.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal calls Pegasus the Gorgon's horse.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Middle Ages – It is the ordinary word for a horse.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(MLW)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|horse]], especially a workhorse, packhorse or [[m|en|nag]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''Gorgoneus caballus'': Pegasus.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Late and Medieval Latin)'' A horse in general.^(Georges 1913)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[caballa]]

+ * [[caballārius]]

+ * [[caballātiō]]

+ * [[caballicō]]

+ * [[caballīnus]]

+ * [[caballiō]]

+ * [[cavallus]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[equus]]

+ * [[en|cavalier]]

+ * [[en|chivalry]]

+ * [[en|cavalry]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}