nurus

Latin

Alternative forms

• nura (post-classical)
• *norum, *nora (Vulgar Latin)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *snusós, remade into an u-stem likely by influence of socrus, -ūs (“mother in law”). The first -u- is unexpected, as original *-u- before -r- arising from *-s- would have been expected to lower to *-o- (cf. serō < *sish₁-). The expected outcome is nevertheless reflected in most Romance descendants (eg. Spanish nuera, Italian nuora, etc.), although they could be secondary, and shifted from the attested -u- by influence of other female kinship terms such as socrus or soror (“sister”). The variant ending in -a, also found in Romance descendants but attested already in the Appendix Probi, while also conceivably secondary, reflects a Proto-Indo-European *snus-éh₂ also reflected in Proto-Germanic *snuzō, Proto-Slavic *snъxà and Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.rus/, [ˈnʊrʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.rus/, [ˈnuːrus]

Noun

nurus f (genitive nurūs); fourth declension

1. daughter-in-law
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.161–162:

     semper ad Aeneadās placidō, pulcherrima, voltū
     respice totque tuās, dīva, tuēre nurūs.

     Goddess most beautiful, with a pleased expression [may you] always look upon the descendants of Aeneas, and protect your daughters-in-law, so numerous.

2. (transferred sense) young married woman, young lady

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nurus	nurūs
Genitive	nurūs	nuruum
Dative	nuruī	nuribus
Accusative	nurum	nurūs
Ablative	nurū	nuribus
Vocative	nurus	nurūs

Descendants

• see: nura, *nora, and *norum

Further reading

• “nurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• nurus 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)
• nurus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.