ruber

See also: rüber

Latin

Alternative forms

• rubrus

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ruðros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰrós (“red”), from the root *h₁rewdʰ-.

Cognates include Ancient Greek ἐρῠθρός (erŭthrós), Sanskrit रु॒धि॒र (rudhirá), Old East Slavic ръдръ (rŭdrŭ) (< Proto-Slavic *rъdrъ). Compare the term rūfus (“red, reddish”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈrʊ.bɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈruː.ber]

Adjective

ruber (feminine rubra, neuter rubrum, comparative rubrior, superlative ruberrimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. red approximately like red ochre (which had a traditional status among the Romans); red that was both common and dignified, somewhat associated with pigment
   • 239 BCE – 169 BCE, Ennius, Annales 16.416:

     intereā fax / occidit Ōceanumque rubrā tractim obruit aethrā

     meanwhile the torch (i.e., the sun) / goes down and buries the Ocean slowly with the red-lit sky

   • 234 BCE – 149 BCE, Cato the Elder, De agri cultura 6.2.6:

     ager olētō cōnserundō, quī in uentum fauōnium spectābit et sōlī ostentus erit: alius bonus nūllus erit. quī ager frīgidior et macrior erit, ibi oleam liciniānam serī oportet; sīn in locō crassō aut calidō sēueris, hostus nēquam erit et ferundō arbor perībit et muscus ruber molestus erit.

     The land for planting an olive-grove on it is that which is facing the west wind and gets sun. No other will be good. If you have land that is rather cold and dry, then the Licinian olive should be planted there; else if you plant it in a wet or a warm place, the olive yield will be wretched and the tree will die giving this yield, and there will be red moss that causes trouble.

   • c. 110 BCE – c. 25 BCE, Cornelius Nepos, Fragments 27.2:

     Mē . . . iuuene uiolācea purpura uigēbat, cuius lībra dēnāriīs centum uēnībat, nec multō post rubra Tarentīna. huic successit dibapha Tyria, quae in lībrās dēnāriīs mīlle nōn poterat emī. hāc P. Lentulus Spinthēr aedīlis curūlis prīmus in praetextā ūsus inprobābātur. quā purpurā quis nōn iam . . . trīclīniāria facit?

     In my day, violet-colored (i.e., dark) purple was in esteem, and you could buy it for a hundred denarii a pound, and shortly after that, the red Tarentine purple. Then appeared double-dyed Tyrian, which you by the pound couldn't buy with a thousand denarii. Publius Lentulus Spinther, when he was aedile of the curule seat, used this purple in his praetexta toga, first one to do that, and he was criticized for it. This purple, who doesn't now make already dining room cushions with it?

2. (metonymic) of the Mare Rubrum: of the Red Sea

Usage notes

• There are numerous words in Classical Latin for red and colors including stative verbs like rubeō (“to be red”), and semantically meticulous derivatives like rubicundus. Not even this word is general, but has a niche. The words most widely and all-inclusively referring to redness (which was the whole red-orange-yellow spectrum) in mature Classical Latin were the noun rubor, the verb rubeō, and the adjective rūfus.
• Used by the Romans as the conventional translation of Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós).
• Ruber is used to describe blood by poets starting with Lucretius, but it is not itself evocative of carnage, and describes also things like red hair and red natron. It relatively often describes things somehow painted red or related to painting red (kermes, ruddle, Tarentine sea-snail-dyed fabric i.e. one of the "purples", spilled blood).

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ruber	rubra	rubrum		rubrī	rubrae	rubra
genitive	rubrī	rubrae	rubrī		rubrōrum	rubrārum	rubrōrum
dative	rubrō	rubrae	rubrō		rubrīs
accusative	rubrum	rubram	rubrum		rubrōs	rubrās	rubra
ablative	rubrō	rubrā	rubrō		rubrīs
vocative	ruber	rubra	rubrum		rubrī	rubrae	rubra

Synonyms

• (red): rūfus, russus, (Late Latin) rubeus, (Late Latin) russātus

Derived terms

• Lacernella Rubra
• rubelliānus
• rubelliō
• rubellulus
• rubellus
• rubrolīneātus

Related terms

• rubēdō
• rubefaciō
• rubēns
• rubeō
• rubēscō
• rubeus
• rubia
• rubicundulus
• rubicundus
• rūbidus
• rubīnus
• rubor
• rūbrīca
• rūbricātus
• rūbrīcō
• rūbrīcōsus
• rūfus

Descendants

• Corsican: rubru, rubriu, rubbriu
• Italian: rubro
• Portuguese: rubro
• Spanish: rubro
• ⇒ Translingual: Halorubrum

See also

Colors in Latin · colōrēs (layout · text)

albus, candidus, cānus, marmoreus (poetic), eburneus (poetic), niveus (poetic), argenteus (poetic), lacteus (poetic)	pullus, mūrīnus (of livestock)	niger, āter, furvus, fuscus ("swarthy"), piceus (poetic)
ruber, russus, rūbidus (dark), flammeus (poetic); rutilus, pūniceus, spādīx (poetic), sanguineus (poetic)	rūfus, rutilus, rōbus (of oxen), croceus (poetic), aureus (poetic), rāvus (of eyes); fulvus (poetic), niger (of eyes), badius (of horses)	lūteus, flāvus ("blond"), lūridus, gilvus (of horses), helvus (of cattle); cēreus (poetic)
viridis, flāvus (poetic)	viridis, herbeus (of eyes), fulvus (poetic)	viridis, glaucus (poetic), caeruleus (poetic, only dark)
	glaucus (poetic), caeruleus, caesius (of eyes)	caeruleus, līvidus, ferrūgineus (poetic), glaucus (poetic)
violāceus	purpureus (underlying shade)	roseus

References

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