nurus

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *snusós, remade into an u-stem likely by influence of socrus, -ūs (“mother in law”).[1] The first -u- is unexpected, as original *-u- before -r- arising from *-s- would have been expected to lower to *-o- (cf. serō < *sish₁-). The expected outcome is nevertheless reflected in most Romance descendants (eg. Spanish nuera, Italian nuora, etc.),[2] although they could be secondary, and shifted from the attested -u- by influence of other female kinship terms such as socrus or soror (“sister”).[3] The variant ending in -a, also found in Romance descendants but attested already in the Appendix Probi, while also conceivably secondary,[3] reflects a Proto-Indo-European *snus-éh₂ also reflected in Proto-Germanic *snuzō, Proto-Slavic *snъxà and Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́).

Pronunciation

Noun

nurus f (genitive nurūs); fourth declension

  1. daughter-in-law
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.161–162:
      semper ad Aeneadās placidō, pulcherrima, voltū
      respice totque tuās, dīva, tuēre nurūs.
      Goddess most beautiful, with a pleased expression [may you] always look upon the descendants of Aeneas, and protect your daughters-in-law, so numerous.
  2. (transferred sense) young married woman, young lady

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative nurus nurūs
Genitive nurūs nuruum
Dative nuruī nuribus
Accusative nurum nurūs
Ablative nurū nuribus
Vocative nurus nurūs

Descendants

References
  1. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “norus, -ūs”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 420
  2. Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 38
  3. Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “nŭrus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 7: N–Pas, page 246

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