cornupeta

See also: cornúpeta

Latin

FWOTD – 30 October 2023

Etymology 1

From cornū (“horn”) +‎ petō (“push, assail, thrust at”) +‎ -a (suffix deriving agent nouns from verbs). Used in the Latin Bible as a translation of Biblical Hebrew נַגָּח (naggāḥ, “(apt to) goring”) (which occurs in the Torah only in the two verses of Exodus cited below). The formation of the Latin word may be influenced by Ancient Greek κερατιστής (keratistḗs), the translation used by the Septuagint, which is built on κέρας (kéras, “horn”). (Although the Latin Vulgate was intended to be a translation from Hebrew rather than from Greek, Jerome was familiar with the Septuagint and with prior Latin translations based on it.)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /korˈnu.pe.ta/, [kɔrˈnʊpɛt̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /korˈnu.pe.ta/, [korˈnuːpet̪ä]

Adjective

cornupeta (genitive cornupetae); first-declension adjective (masculine and neuter forms identical to feminine forms)

1. (Late Latin) goring; thrusting or pushing with horns
   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Exodus.21.29:

     Quod si bos cornupeta fuerit ab heri et nudiustertius, et contestati sunt dominum eius, nec recluserit eum, occideritque virum aut mulierem : et bos lapidibus obruetur, et dominum eius occident.

     But if the bovine has previously been thrusting with its horns, and its owner has been called to witness, and has not kept it confined, and it has killed a man or a woman: the bovine shall be stoned and its owner shall be killed.

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Exodus.21.36:

     Sin autem sciebat quod bos cornupeta esset ab heri et nudiustertius, et non custodivit eum dominus suus : reddet bovem pro bove, et cadaver integrum accipiet.

     But if he knew the bovine was pushing with its horns previously, and its owner did not guard it: he shall pay back a bovine for a bovine, and receive the whole carcass.

   • 1578, Johannes Brenz, Operum reuerendi et clarissimi theologi D. Ioannis Brentii, praepositi Stutgardiani,‎^[2], volume 3, Tübingen, page 269:

     Cornu, more Hebraeo, significat vel regnum, quòd Reges balsamo e cornu sumpto ungebantur: vel vires et potentiam, quòd animalia cornupeta grassentur cornibus suis, tanquàm armis.

     Horn, according to Hebrew usage, signifies either kingship, because kings were anointed with balm from a horn: or strength and power, because goring animals attack with their horns, like weapons.

   • 1644, Johannes Plantavit de La Pause, Florilegium biblicum, complectens omnes utriusque Testamenti sententias, hebraice & graece, cum versione latina, & brevi iuxta literalem sensum commentario illustratas‎^[3], page 255:

     Bovis nomine quodcumque animal cornupeta vel calcitrosum synecdochicè intelligitur

     Under the name of bovine, any goring or kicking animal is understood by synecdoche

   • 1673, Matthew Poole, Synopsis criticorum aliorumque S. Scripturæ interpretum‎^[4], volume 3, London, page 2054:

     Enallage, i.e. cornua: more animalium cornupetarum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1673, Antero Maria da San Bonaventura, Ponderationes in Psalmos, iuxta multiplicem diuinarum scripturarum sensum...‎^[5], Lyon, page 602:

     Contere brachium peccatoris, et maligni: unde ficut in alio psalmo eorundem fortitudinem sub cornuum nomine designat, quia in cornibus animalia cornupeta maximum robur habent, et tamen se ea contriturum asserit; et omnia cornua peccatorum confringam: ità modò, quia hominum brachia virium funt instrumenta, quibus innumera scelera patrare solent, à Divina providentia tandem conterenda esse prophetat Regius Vates.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

First-declension adjective (masculine and neuter forms identical to feminine forms).

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	cornupeta			cornupetae	cornupeta
Genitive	cornupetae			cornupetārum
Dative				cornupetīs
Accusative	cornupetam	cornupeta		cornupetās	cornupeta
Ablative	cornupetā			cornupetīs
Vocative	cornupeta			cornupetae	cornupeta

Alternative forms

• cornupetus, cornipeta

Related terms

• cornupetō

Descendants

• → Spanish: cornúpeta

Further reading

• “cornupeta”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “cornupeta”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[6], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
• cornupeta in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• cornupeta 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)

Etymology 2

Adjective

cornupeta

1. inflection of cornupetus:
   1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

cornupetā

1. ablative feminine singular of cornupetus