semivir
Latin
editEtymology
editFrom semi- (“half”) + vir (“man”).
Pronunciation
edit- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈseː.mi.u̯ir/, [ˈs̠eːmiu̯ɪr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈse.mi.vir/, [ˈsɛːmivir]
Noun
editsēmivir m (genitive sēmivirī); second declension
- a half-man, half man and half beast, semihomo, e.g., the centaur Chiron
- (transferred) a half-man in a derogatory sense of seeming effeminate or unmanly
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.215–217:
- “Et nunc ille Paris cum sēmivirō comitātū,
Maeoniā mentum mitrā crīnemque madentem
subnexus, raptō potītur [...].- “And now, that [other] Paris – with his troupe of half-men, and his pomaded hair in a Maeonian turban tied under his chin – holds tight what he has stolen [from me].”
(As Paris took Helen, Aeneas has taken Dido; and so a jealous King Iarbas says that the outsiders’ appearance is unmanly, and perhaps implies that they could be eunuchs.)
- “And now, that [other] Paris – with his troupe of half-men, and his pomaded hair in a Maeonian turban tied under his chin – holds tight what he has stolen [from me].”
- “Et nunc ille Paris cum sēmivirō comitātū,
- castrated man, eunuch
- hermaphrodite
Declension
editSecond-declension noun (nominative singular in -r).
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | sēmivir | sēmivirī |
Genitive | sēmivirī | sēmivirōrum |
Dative | sēmivirō | sēmivirīs |
Accusative | sēmivirum | sēmivirōs |
Ablative | sēmivirō | sēmivirīs |
Vocative | sēmivir | sēmivirī |
References
edit- “semivir”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- semivir in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.