saporus

Latin

Etymology

From sapor, cf. formations in Silver Latin such as honorus from honor, odorus from odor, and the back-formation decor from decorus competing with older decus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /saˈpoː.rus/, [s̠äˈpoːrʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /saˈpo.rus/, [säˈpɔːrus]

Adjective

sapōrus (feminine sapōra, neuter sapōrum); first/second-declension adjective

1. (Late Latin) savory, delicious
   • c. 250 CE – c. 325 CE, Lactantius, Divinae Institutiones 3.16.15:

     Et Seneca, Nondum sunt, inquit, mille anni, ex quo initia sapientiae mota sunt. Multis ergo saeculis humanum genus sine ratione vixit. Quod irridens Persius, Postquam, inquit, sapere Urbi / cum pipere et palmis venit, tamquam sapientia cum saporis mercibus fuerit invecta.

     And so Seneca says, It isn't yet a thousand years since the beginnings of wisdom. For many centuries, then, humanity (allegedly) lived without reason. Persius laughed at this saying: After taste (wisdom) came to the City with pepper and palm dates, as if wisdom had been brought in with savory merchandise.

   • d. 1164, Hugh of Amiens, Dialogorum libri VIII 1241A, (as cited in "saporus", Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources):

     anima ... tota naribus odora, tota palato sapora, tota corpore sentit palpabilia

     The soul ... perceives all smells with the nose, all savory things with the palate, all that can be sensed by touch with the body.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	sapōrus	sapōra	sapōrum		sapōrī	sapōrae	sapōra
Genitive	sapōrī	sapōrae	sapōrī		sapōrōrum	sapōrārum	sapōrōrum
Dative	sapōrō		sapōrō		sapōrīs
Accusative	sapōrum	sapōram	sapōrum		sapōrōs	sapōrās	sapōra
Ablative	sapōrō	sapōrā	sapōrō		sapōrīs
Vocative	sapōre	sapōra	sapōrum		sapōrī	sapōrae	sapōra

References

• “saporus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “saporus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• saporus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.