virga
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin virga (“rod”). Doublet of verge.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: vûrʹgə, IPA(key): /ˈvɜːɡə/
Noun edit
virga (countable and uncountable, plural virgas or virgae)
- (music) A type of note used in plainsong notation, having a tail and representing a single tone.
- (meteorology, countable) A streak of rain or snow that is dissipated in falling and does not reach the ground, commonly appearing descending from a cloud layer.
- 2003, Erik Larson, “Pilgrimage”, in The Devil in the White City, Vintage Books, page 78:
- Strong gusts of wind buffeted the train, and ghostly virga of ice followed it through the night.
- (measurement, countable) A unit of length: a rod, pole or perch (5½ yards); or a unit of area: a square rod, pole or perch.
Synonyms edit
- (musical note): virgula
Translations edit
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See also edit
References edit
- “virga” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
Anagrams edit
Catalan edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
virga f (plural virgues)
Esperanto edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin virgō + -a.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
virga (accusative singular virgan, plural virgaj, accusative plural virgajn)
Derived terms edit
- malvirgigi (“to deflower, to violate”)
- virgulino (“female virgin”)
- virgulo (“virgin”)
Estonian edit
Adjective edit
virga
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
virga f (plural virgas)
Interlingua edit
Etymology edit
Italian verga, French verge, Spanish verga, and Portuguese virga.
Noun edit
virga (plural virgas)
Istriot edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
virga f
Latin edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Italic *wizgā, probably from Proto-Indo-European *wisgeh₂ (“flexible rod or stick”). Possibly cognate with Proto-Germanic *wiskaz (“bundle of hay or straw, wisp”).[1] From Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to produce, procreate”), or alternatively from a stem *weyḱs- (see *weyḱ-). Regardless, it is probably a doublet of viscum.
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈu̯ir.ɡa/, [ˈu̯ɪrɡä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈvir.ɡa/, [ˈvirɡä]
Noun edit
virga f (genitive virgae); first declension
- twig, young shoot
- rod, switch for flogging.
- 4th-century CE, Jerome of Stridon (St. Jerome), Vulgate, Proverbs 26:3
- flagellum equō et cāmus asinō et virgā dorsō inprūdentium
- A whip for a horse, and a snaffle for an ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
- (trans.: Douay-Rheims Bible)
- A whip for a horse, and a snaffle for an ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
- flagellum equō et cāmus asinō et virgā dorsō inprūdentium
- 4th-century CE, Jerome of Stridon (St. Jerome), Vulgate, Proverbs 26:3
- staff, walking stick
- 8 AD . Fasti, Publius Ovidius Naso, Liber II, 703-704.
- Illic Tarquinius mandata latentia nati
Accipit, et virga lilia summa metit.- There Tarquinius is receiving secret mandates of the son
And is knocking down with staff the tops of lilies.
- There Tarquinius is receiving secret mandates of the son
- 8 AD . Fasti, Publius Ovidius Naso, Liber II, 703-704.
- wand (magical)
- (figuratively, Late Latin, Medieval Latin) penis
- ca. 540, Cassiodorus, On the Soul :
- sunt etiam singularia in medio constituta ne in unam partem praeiudicialiter vergentia alteram competenti decore nudarent: nasus, os, guttur, pectus, umbilicus, et genitalium virga descendens, quae laudabilia et honora monstrantur quando in medio locata consistunt.
- These [body parts] are one by one placed in the middle, because if they converged to the same place, one would deprive the honour of another part. The nose, mouth, throat, chest, navel, and the rod of the genitals show their merit and excellence by being placed in the middle.
- sunt etiam singularia in medio constituta ne in unam partem praeiudicialiter vergentia alteram competenti decore nudarent: nasus, os, guttur, pectus, umbilicus, et genitalium virga descendens, quae laudabilia et honora monstrantur quando in medio locata consistunt.
Declension edit
First-declension noun.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | virga | virgae |
Genitive | virgae | virgārum |
Dative | virgae | virgīs |
Accusative | virgam | virgās |
Ablative | virgā | virgīs |
Vocative | virga | virgae |
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
- Ancient Greek: βέργαι (bérgai)
- Aromanian: veargã
- Asturian: verga
- Catalan: verga
- English: virga
- Galician: verga
- Greek: βέργα (vérga)
- Hungarian: virgács
- Istriot: virga
- Italian: verga
- Norman: vèrgue
- → French: vergue
- Occitan: vèrga
- Old French: verge
- Piedmontese: verga, vërga
- Portuguese: verga, virga
- Romanian: vargă
- Sicilian: vìriga, vìrija
- Spanish: verga
References edit
- “virga”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “virga”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- virga 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)
- virga in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- to beat with rods: virgis caedere
- to beat with rods: virgis caedere
- “virga”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “virga”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources[2], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
Spanish edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
virga f sg