hircus

Latin

Alternative forms

• ircus

Etymology

Unknown. As with other Indo-European words for “goat”, a reliable Proto-Indo-European etymon cannot be formally reconstructed. Nonetheless, compare Old High German irah, irh (“buck”), which Pokorny says is borrowed from the Latin.

Possibly related to hirpus (“wolf”) and/or hirtus (“hairy, shaggy”); according to Pokorny, all three are from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈhir.kus/, [ˈhɪrkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈir.kus/, [ˈirkus]

Noun

hircus m (genitive hircī); second declension

1. a buck, male goat
2. (by extension) the rank smell of the armpits
3. (figuratively) a filthy person

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	hircus	hircī
Genitive	hircī	hircōrum
Dative	hircō	hircīs
Accusative	hircum	hircōs
Ablative	hircō	hircīs
Vocative	hirce	hircī

Synonyms

• (male goat): caper

Related terms

• hircīnus
• Hircipēs
• hircōsus
• hirculus

Descendants

• Catalan: erc
• →⇒ English: hircine, hircinous, hircose
• Galician: hirco
• Italian: irco
• Sicilian: ircu
• Spanish: hirco

References

• “hircus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “hircus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• hircus 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)
• hircus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 286