tenebrio

See also: Tenebrio

Latin

Etymology

From tenebrae (“darkness, gloom”) +‎ -iō. In New Latin, used by biologists as the name of a genus of beetles (Tenebrio).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /teˈne.bri.oː/, [t̪ɛˈnɛbrioː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /teˈne.bri.o/, [t̪eˈnɛːbrio]

Noun

tenebriō m (genitive tenebriōnis); third declension

1. One who shuns the light, trickster, swindler
   • 1st century BCE, Lucius Afranius, Epistula , (as quoted by Nonius):

     huc venit fugiens tenebrione(m) tirrium

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Menippean satires , (fragment as quoted by Nonius):

     saltem infernus tenebr(i)o, κακός δαίμων, atque habeat homines sollicitos, quod eum peius formidant quam fullo ululam.

     at least a devilish trickster, an evil spirit, and let him keep men disturbed, because they fear him more than the fuller fears the screechowl

   • 3rd-5th century CE, Nonius Marcellus, Compendiosa doctrina 19:

     Nebulones et tenebriones dicti sunt, qui mendaciis et astutiis suis nebulam quandam et tenebras obiciebant aut quibus ad fugam et furta haec erant accomodata et utilia.

2. (New Latin, biology) mealworm (tenebriō mólitor)

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tenebriō	tenebriōnēs
Genitive	tenebriōnis	tenebriōnum
Dative	tenebriōnī	tenebriōnibus
Accusative	tenebriōnem	tenebriōnēs
Ablative	tenebriōne	tenebriōnibus
Vocative	tenebriō	tenebriōnēs

Related terms

• tenebrae
• tenebellae
• tenebrārius
• tenebrātiō
• tenebrescō
• tenebricō
• tenebricōsus
• tenebricus
• tenebrōsus

Descendants

• • → Translingual: Tenebrio (learned)

Further reading

• “tenebrio”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tenebrio in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• tenebrio in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016