Etymology
From Proto-Italic *arjēts ~ *erjēts (compare Umbrian 𐌄𐌓𐌉𐌄𐌕𐌖 (erietu)), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₁r-i-(e)t- (“young domesticated caprine”). Cognate with Old Irish heirp, erb (“kid”), Ancient Greek ἔριφος (ériphos, “kid”), displaying a different suffix, and perhaps Old Armenian որոջ (oroǰ, “lamb”), երինջ (erinǰ, “heifer”).[1] However, as the cognates demonstrate, this has the characteristics of a substrate word.
Noun
ariēs m (genitive arietis); third declension
- ram, male sheep
8 CE,
Ovid,
Fasti 4.101–102:
- cum mare trux ariēs cornū dēcertat; at īdem
frontem dīlēctae laedere parcit ovis.- With [another] male, the fierce ram fights it out with his horn, but the same
[ram] is careful to spare the forehead of a beloved ewe.
- battering ram
- beam, prop
Descendants
- Aromanian: areati
- Champenois: aroi
- Corsican: arghjetu
- Franco-Provençal: arêt
- Istro-Romanian: arete
- Ligurian: ajou (Genoan)
- Megleno-Romanian: ăreati, ręti
- Romanian: arete
Borrowings:
References
De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ariēs, -etis”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 54
Further reading
- “aries”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “aries”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- aries in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- the battering-ram strikes the wall: aries murum attingit, percutit
- “aries”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “aries”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin