Vesuvius

From Latin Vesuvius, of uncertain origin.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /vəˈsu.vi.əs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Ve‧su‧vi‧us

Vesuvius

1. A volcanic mountain located on the Gulf of Naples in Italy.
   • 1928 February 25 – March 3, Arthur Conan Doyle, “When the World Screamed”, in The Professor Challenger Stories […], London: John Murray, […], published [1952], →OCLC, page 577:

     Hecla bellowed until the Icelanders feared a cataclysm. Vesuvius blew its head off.

• Vesuvian, vesuvin

Vesuvius (plural Vesuviuses)

1. A kind of firework supposed to resemble a volcano eruption.

• Vesēvus, Vesaevus (collateral forms)
• Vesvius, Vesbius (contracted collateral forms)

Of uncertain origin; however, proposed derivations include:

• Latin vē- +‎ Ancient Greek σβέ(ννῡμι) (sbé(nnūmi), “I am quenched”, “I go out”)
• Oscan 𐌚𐌄𐌔𐌚 (fesf, “steam”, “smoke”)
• Proto-Celtic *ves (“mountain”)

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /u̯eˈsu.u̯i.us/, [u̯ɛˈs̠uː̯iʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /veˈsu.vi.us/, [veˈs̬uːvius]

Vesuvius m sg (genitive Vesuviī or Vesuvī); second declension

1. Vesuvius, a volcano in Campania

Second-declension noun, singular only.

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

• Vesuvīnus (“of, belonging to Vesuvius”, adjective)

• Campānia

• “Vĕsŭvĭus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Vĕsŭvĭus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,668/1.