Maius
Latin
Alternative forms
- Majus
- maius (alternative case form)
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈmai̯.i̯us/, [ˈmäi̯ːʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈma.jus/, [ˈmäːjus]
- Dictionaries or reference works sometimes mark the 'a' in the first syllable with a macron; however, the heavy weight of this syllable was not based on it containing a long vowel /aː/. Rather, this word was pronounced with /ajj/, a short vowel /a/ followed by a geminate consonant /jj/ (alternatively interpreted by some Latinists as /ai̯j/, a diphthong ending in -i̯- followed by the consonant /j/), as usual for Latin words with intervocalic -i-.[1][2]
Etymology 1
From the goddess Maia, daughter of Atlas and mother of Mercury, whose name was either borrowed from Ancient Greek Μαῖα (Maîa, “Maia”) (from Ancient Greek μαῖα (maîa, “lady”)) or was originally a native Latin formation from a feminine suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“great”) that was eventually conflated with the Greek goddess.
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | Maius | Maia | Maium | Maiī | Maiae | Maia | |
Genitive | Maiī | Maiae | Maiī | Maiōrum | Maiārum | Maiōrum | |
Dative | Maiō | Maiō | Maiīs | ||||
Accusative | Maium | Maiam | Maium | Maiōs | Maiās | Maia | |
Ablative | Maiō | Maiā | Maiō | Maiīs | |||
Vocative | Maie | Maia | Maium | Maiī | Maiae | Maia |
Declension
Second-declension noun, singular only.
Case | Singular |
---|---|
Nominative | Maius |
Genitive | Maiī Maī1 |
Dative | Maiō |
Accusative | Maium |
Ablative | Maiō |
Vocative | Maī |
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
Descendants
- Balkan: Romance
- Aromanian: maiu
- Italo-Romance:
- North-Italian:
- Gallo-Romance:
- Occitano-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- Insular Romance:
- Borrowings
- Unsorted borrowings
These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.
See also
- Roman calendar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
References
- W. M. Lindsay (1894) The Latin Language, page 8:
- Cicero wrote ii to express the sound of the second element of an i-diphthong before a vowel (see ch. ii. § 55), e.g. aiio, Maiia, Aiiax (Quint, i. 4. II; Vel. Long. 7.54 K. : et in plerisque Cicero videtur auditu emensus scriptionem, qui et ‘Aiiacem’ et ‘Maiiam’ per duo i scribenda existimavit.
- Nishimura, Kanehiro (2011) “Notes on Glide Treatment in Latin Orthography and Phonology: -iciō, servus, aiō”, in Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, volume 124, page 193:
- It is well known that Latin orthography tends to avoid gemination of ⟨i⟩ for two successive i̯-glides [...] The most classic case may be maior 'larger'; its phonological representation is /mai̯i̯or/ [...] the provision of a macron (i.e., māior, as if the vowel were long) in order to display the syllable weight — the way common in a number of grammar books and dictionaries — is utterly misleading in that it disguises the phonological reality. [...] Note also Cicero's preference for [...] "Maiiam" [...] Whatever the original Greek phonetic values of [...] Μαῖα, the glide seems to have at least phonetically filled both the coda of the first syllable and the onset of the second when borrowed into Latin (see Hoenigswald 1949: 394 and Godel 1953: 93).
- The template Template:R:sq:Schumacher-Matzinger does not use the parameter(s):
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Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Schumacher, Stefan, Matzinger, Joachim (2013) Die Verben des Altalbanischen: Belegwörterbuch, Vorgeschichte und Etymologie (Albanische Forschungen; 33) (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN
Further reading
- Māius 2 Māius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Etymology 2
An elliptical form of Maiusdeus (“the great god”, “Jupiter”), from maius (“great”, archaic form of magnus) + deus (“god”).
Declension
Second-declension noun, singular only.
Case | Singular |
---|---|
Nominative | Maius |
Genitive | Maiī Maī1 |
Dative | Maiō |
Accusative | Maium |
Ablative | Maiō |
Vocative | Maī |
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
References
- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Māius 1 Māius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.