virga

See also: Virga

English

A virga denoting do.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin virga (“rod”). Doublet of verge.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: vûrʹgə, IPA^(key): /ˈvɜːɡə/

Noun

virga (countable and uncountable, plural virgas or virgae)

1. (music) A type of note used in plainsong notation, having a tail and representing a single tone.
2. (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.

3. (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

• (musical note): virgula

Translations

streak of rain or snow

• German: Sturzsträhne f
• Hebrew: גֶּשֶׁם תָּלוּי (he) m (geshem talui), וִירְגָּה (he) f (virga)
• Japanese: 尾流雲 (びりゅううん, biryūun)

See also

• virga on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• “virga” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]

Anagrams

• gravi-

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbir.ɡə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈvir.ɡə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈviɾ.ɣa]

Noun

virga f (plural virgues)

1. (meteorology) virga

Esperanto

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin virgō +‎ -a.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈvirɡa]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -irɡa
• Hyphenation: vir‧ga

Adjective

virga (accusative singular virgan, plural virgaj, accusative plural virgajn)

1. virgin, virginal

Derived terms

• malvirgigi (“to deflower, to violate”)
• virgulino (“female virgin”)
• virgulo (“virgin”)

 

Estonian

Adjective

virga

1. genitive singular of virk

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /viʁ.ɡa/

Noun

virga f (plural virgas)

1. (meteorology) virga

Interlingua

Etymology

Italian verga, French verge, Spanish verga, and Portuguese virga.

Noun

virga (plural virgas)

1. rod
2. (nautical) yard
3. (vulgar) dick

Istriot

Etymology

From Latin virga.

Noun

virga f

1. whip
2. strap

Latin

Etymology

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”). The Proto-Indo-European term is sometimes taken as an extension of Proto-Indo-European *weys- (“to produce, procreate”), or alternatively from a stem *weyḱs- (see *weyḱ-). Regardless, it is probably a doublet of viscum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯ir.ɡa/, [ˈu̯ɪrɡä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvir.ɡa/, [ˈvirɡä]

Noun

virga f (genitive virgae); first declension

1. twig, young shoot
2. 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)

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.

4. wand (magical)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.242–243:

     Tum virgam capit: Hāc animās ille ēvocat Orcō
     pallentīs, aliās sub Tartara trīstia mittit, [...].

     Then [Mercury] takes up his wand: With this he calls pale souls from Orcus, or sends others down to sorrowful Tartarus, [...].
     (Specifically, the caduceus that Mercury uses in his role as psychopompus.)

5. (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.

Declension

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

Derived terms

• virgō ?
• virgāta
• virgātor
• virgātus
• virgeus
• virgōsus
• virgula

Descendants

• Ancient Greek: βέργαι (bérgai)
• Aromanian: veargã
• Asturian: verga
• Catalan: verga
• English: virga
• Galician: verga
• Greek: βέργα (vérga)
• Hungarian: virgács
• Istriot: virga
• Italian: verga
• Megleno-Romanian: veargă
• Norman: vèrgue
  • → French: vergue
• Occitan: vèrga
• Old French: verge
  • → English: verge
  • French: verge
• Piedmontese: verga, vërga
• Portuguese: verga, virga
• Romanian: vargă
• Sicilian: vìriga, vìrija
• Spanish: verga

References

• “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
    
• “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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiɾɡa/ [ˈbiɾ.ɣ̞a]
• Rhymes: -iɾɡa
• Syllabification: vir‧ga

Adjective

virga f sg

1. feminine singular of virgo