vellus
Latin edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“hair, wool”) (compare Greek λῶμα (lôma), Welsh gwlân, English wool, Lithuanian vìlna, Russian волна (volna), Gaulish vlana , Latin lāna).
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈu̯el.lus/, [ˈu̯ɛlːʲʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈvel.lus/, [ˈvɛlːus]
Noun edit
vellus n (genitive velleris); third declension
- The wool shorn from a sheep; fleece; wool
- 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.765–766:
- ‘nēve minus multōs redigam, quam māne fuērunt,
nēve gemam referēns vellera rapta lupō.’- ‘‘And may I not drive back fewer [but] as many [sheep] as there were in the morning;
nor will I bemoan bringing back fleeces having been snatched from a wolf.’’
(A shepherd’s prayer to Pales.)
- ‘‘And may I not drive back fewer [but] as many [sheep] as there were in the morning;
- ‘nēve minus multōs redigam, quam māne fuērunt,
- The hide or pelt of an animal
Declension edit
Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | vellus | vellera |
Genitive | velleris | vellerum |
Dative | vellerī | velleribus |
Accusative | vellus | vellera |
Ablative | vellere | velleribus |
Vocative | vellus | vellera |
Synonyms edit
- (wool): lāna
Descendants edit
- Catalan: velló
- > Italian: veglio (inherited), → vello (learned)
- Portuguese: velo
- Sicilian: veḍḍu
- Spanish: vellón
References edit
- “vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- vellus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- vellus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette