vellus

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Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (hair, wool), and connected to Latin lāna (wool) and Gaulish vlana.[1] This is favored by Meiser, but rejected by Schrijver and de Vaan, the latter who instead proposes the word as a derivative of vellō (to pluck out).[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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vellus n (genitive velleris); third declension

  1. The wool shorn from a sheep; fleece; wool
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.765–766:
      ‘nēve minus multōs redigam, quam māne fuērunt,
      nēve gemam referēns vellera rapta lupō.’
      ‘‘And may I not drive back fewer [but] as many [sheep] as there were in the morning;
      nor will I bemoan bringing back fleeces having been snatched from a wolf.’’

      (A shepherd’s prayer to Pales.)
  2. The hide or pelt of an animal

Declension

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Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative vellus vellera
Genitive velleris vellerum
Dative vellerī velleribus
Accusative vellus vellera
Ablative vellere velleribus
Vocative vellus vellera

Synonyms

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Descendants

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  • Catalan: velló
  • > Italian: veglio (inherited), vello (learned)
  • Portuguese: velo
  • Sicilian: veḍḍu
  • Spanish: vellón

References

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  • vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • vellus 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)
  • vellus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  1. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “lāna”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 325
  2. ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “vellō, -ere”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 659