hircus
Latin
Alternative forms
- ircus
Etymology
Unknown. As with other Indo-European words for “goat”, a reliable Proto-Indo-European etymon cannot be formally reconstructed. Nonetheless, compare Old High German irah, irh (“buck”), which Pokorny says is borrowed from the Latin.
Possibly related to hirpus (“wolf”) and/or hirtus (“hairy, shaggy”); according to Pokorny, all three are from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈhir.kus/, [ˈhɪrkʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈir.kus/, [ˈirkus]
Noun
hircus m (genitive hircī); second declension
- a buck, male goat
- (by extension) the rank smell of the armpits
- (figuratively) a filthy person
Declension
Second-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | hircus | hircī |
| Genitive | hircī | hircōrum |
| Dative | hircō | hircīs |
| Accusative | hircum | hircōs |
| Ablative | hircō | hircīs |
| Vocative | hirce | hircī |
Synonyms
- (male goat): caper
Related terms
- hircīnus
- Hircipēs
- hircōsus
- hirculus
Descendants
- Catalan: erc
- →⇒ English: hircine, hircinous, hircose
- Galician: hirco
- Italian: irco
- Sicilian: ircu
References
- “hircus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “hircus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- hircus 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)
- hircus 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 286
- Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 2, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 445-46