tenebrae

See also: Tenebrae

Latin

Etymology

With regressive dissimilation (m-b > n-b) from *temabrāi, nominalized feminine plural from Proto-Italic *temazros (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *temH-(e)s-ro-, from *temH-. Related to temere.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈte.ne.brae̯/, [ˈt̪ɛnɛbräe̯]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.ne.bre/, [ˈt̪ɛːnebre], (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /teˈneb.rae̯/, [t̪ɛˈnɛbräe̯]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /teˈneb.re/, [t̪eˈnɛbre]

Noun

tenebrae f pl (genitive tenebrārum); first declension

1. darkness, especially the darkness of night
2. (poetic) shadow of death
3. prison, dungeon
4. (by extension) gloom or darkness of the mind

Declension

First-declension noun, plural only.

Case	Plural
Nominative	tenebrae
Genitive	tenebrārum
Dative	tenebrīs
Accusative	tenebrās
Ablative	tenebrīs
Vocative	tenebrae

Antonyms

• (darkness): lūx

Related terms

• tenebellae
• tenebrārius
• tenebrātiō
• tenebrescō
• tenebricō

• tenebricōsus
• tenebricus
• tenebriō
• tenebrōsus

Descendants

• Catalan: tenebres
• French: ténèbres
• Galician: tebras
• Ido: tenebro
• Istriot: tienabre

• Italian: tenebre
• Old Galician-Portuguese: tẽevras
  • Portuguese: trevas
• Spanish: tinieblas

References

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