fulgur
Latin
[edit]
(Lightning occurs in the clouds and descends through the atmosphere of the sky to the earth.)
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Italic *folgos, from the same root as fulgeō (“flash, lighten”). The expected declension according to regular sound changes would be *fulgus / fulgeris. The nominative fulgus is in fact given by Festus as an alternative form. The oblique stem fulger- is attested in Lucretius ("quasi protelo stimulatur fulgere fulgur"), and also in inscriptions in the spelling of derived words such as fulgerātor. Some Romance descendants also derive from a stem fulger-[1] (although they could alternatively descend from fulgere, the infinitive of the verb fulgō).
The usual nominative/accusative/vocative singular form, fulgur, shows replacement of -s with -r, presumably by analogy to the oblique stem.[2] This analogical change is not usual in neuter third-declension nouns, but rōbur n (“oak”),[3] iubar n (“splendor; brightness”) and sulphur n (“brimstone; lightning”) are other possible examples. The usual oblique stem fulgur- shows replacement of expected -er- or -or- with -ur-. Kent 1932 and Parker 1986 suggest that -o- was raised to -u- by assimilation to the vowel in the first syllable in this word, and also in sulphur[2][4] (though ulcus shows regular ulcer-). Compare also (non-neuter) augur.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈfʊɫ.ɡʊr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈful.ɡur]
Noun
[edit]fulgur n (genitive fulguris); third declension
- lightning, a flash of lightning
- Synonyms: fulgor, fulgetrum, fulgurātiō, fulmen
- thunderbolt
- brightness, splendor
Declension
[edit]Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | fulgur | fulgura |
| genitive | fulguris | fulgurum |
| dative | fulgurī | fulguribus |
| accusative | fulgur | fulgura |
| ablative | fulgure | fulguribus |
| vocative | fulgur | fulgura |
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “fulgur”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 3: D–F, pages 841–842
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kent, Roland G. (1932), “The Sounds of Latin. A Descriptive and Historical Phonology”, in Language, volume 8, number 3, →JSTOR, page 101
- ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 306
- ^ Parker, Holt Neumon (1986), The relative chronology of some major Latin sound changes, page 265
Further reading
[edit]- “fulgur”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “fulgur”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “fulgur”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 247