Latin edit

Etymology edit

Uncertain; often cited as borrowed from Gaulish *kaballos,[1] from Proto-Celtic *kaballos, perhaps ultimately an Asiatic borrowing or Wanderwort, compare Ancient Greek καβάλλης (kabállēs, nag), Proto-Slavic *kobýla (mare), Persian کول (kaval, second class horse of mixed blood), and possibly Karakhanid kevel (at) (well-bred fast (horse)).[2][3]

Alternatively, borrowed alongside Greek from Proto-Iranian *kabah, *kabalah, compare Khotanese [script needed] (kabä, horse), Persian کول (kaval), and possibly cognate with Latin cabō (gelding), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kebʰ- (worn-out horse, nag).[4][5]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

caballus m (genitive caballī); second declension[6][7][8][9]

  1. pack-horse, jade, hack
  2. (Old Latin, Classical Latin, Late Latin) nag

Usage notes edit

  • In Classical Latin, the word equus is used for a horse, and caballus is used only by poets. It is only later, in Vulgar and Late Latin, that caballus appears in prose.

Declension edit

Second-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative caballus caballī
Genitive caballī caballōrum
Dative caballō caballīs
Accusative caballum caballōs
Ablative caballō caballīs
Vocative caballe caballī

Derived terms edit

Descendants edit

References edit

  1. ^ Delamarre, Xavier (2003) “caballos”, in Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental [Dictionary of the Gaulish language: A linguistic approach to Old Continental Celtic] (Collection des Hespérides; 9), 2nd edition, Éditions Errance, →ISBN, page 96
  2. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “6l1”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page καβάλλης
  3. ^ Sakhno, Serguei (2017–2018) “Chapter XIII: Slavic”, in Klein, Jared S., Joseph, Brian D., Fritz, Matthias, editors, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: An International Handbook (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft [Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science]; 41.2), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →ISBN, § The lexicon of Slavic, page 1582
  4. ^ Simon, Zsolt (2005) “Die Etymologie von caballus”, in Calboli, Gualtiero, editor, Latina Lingua! Proceedings of the Twelfth International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics (Bologna, 9-14 June 2003), Roma, pages 405-416
  5. ^ Hyllested, Adam (2014) Word Exchange at the Gates of Europe: Five Millennia of Language Contact (PhD. dissertation)[1], Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, pages 91-97
  6. ^ caballus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ caballus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  8. ^ caballus 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)
  9. ^ caballus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.