septentrio

Latin

Alternative forms

• Septentriō
• septemtriō, Septemtriō

Etymology

From septem (“seven”) +‎ triō (“plow ox”; “Ursa Major”, “Ursa Minor”), from terō (“to rub”), the Latin name of both Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, from their appearance of milling around the north celestial pole.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /sepˈten.tri.oː/, [s̠ɛpˈt̪ɛn̪t̪rioː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /sepˈten.tri.o/, [sepˈt̪ɛn̪t̪rio]

Noun

septentriō m (genitive septentriōnis); third declension

1. Ursa Major, Charles' Wain, the Big Dipper

   Synonym: Helicē, Arctus maior

   • ca. 64 BCE – 17 CE, Hyginus mythicus, Fabulae Calisto (177):

     Hic ergo Septentrio maior ... Haec igitur ursa a Graecis Helice appellatur.

     This is then the Big Dipper... It is therefore called the Helice bear by the Greeks.

2. Ursa Minor, the constellation including the most recent pole star

   Synonym: Cynosūra

3. The north

   Synonym: boreās, aquilō, arctus

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.126.8:

     a septentrione et occidente sicciores quam a meridie et oriente

     from the North and West they [winds] are drier than from the South or East

4. the north wind, the wind god Boreas

   Synonym: Boreās, Aquilō

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	septentriō	septentriōnēs
Genitive	septentriōnis	septentriōnum
Dative	septentriōnī	septentriōnibus
Accusative	septentriōnem	septentriōnēs
Ablative	septentriōne	septentriōnibus
Vocative	septentriō	septentriōnēs

Synonyms

• (north wind): boreās

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “north wind”): auster, merīdiēs

Derived terms

• septentriōnālis

Descendants

• → Asturian: septentrión
• → Catalan: septentrió
• → Galician: setentrión
• → Italian: settentrione
• → Old French: septemtrion
  • French: septentrion
  • → Middle English: septemtrioun
    • English: septentrion
• → Piedmontese: stentrion
• → Portuguese: setentrião
• → Romanian: septentrion
• → Spanish: septentrión

References

• “septentrio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “septentrio”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• septentrio in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to lie to the east, west, south, north: spectare in (vergere ad) orientem (solem), occidentem (solem), ad meridiem, in septentriones
    
  • to be situate to the north-west: spectare inter occasum solis et septentriones
    
  • a hill lies to the north: est a septentrionibus collis
    
  • to stretch northwards: porrigi ad septentriones
    
• “septentriōnēs” on page 1917/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)