cachinnus

Latin

Etymology

Of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kaˈkʰin.nus/, [käˈkʰɪnːʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kaˈkin.nus/, [käˈkinːus]

Noun

cachinnus m (genitive cachinnī); second declension

1. loud laughter, horselaugh, guffaw
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 31.12–14:

     Salvē, ō venusta Sirmiō, atque erō gaude
     gaudente; vōsque, ō Lȳdiae lacūs undae,
     rīdēte quidquid est domī cachinnōrum.

     Greetings, lovely Sirmio, and rejoice for your master
     rejoicing; and you, oh waves of the Lydian lake,
     laugh whatever there is at home for laughter.

   • c. 69 CE – 122 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum 5 41:

     Historiam in adulēscentia hortante T. Līviō, Sulpiciō vērō Flāvō etiam adiuvante, scrībere adgressus est. Et cum prīmum frequentī auditōriō commīsisset, aegrē perlēgit refrīgerātus saepe ā sēmet ipsō. Nam cum initiō recitātiōnis dēfrāctīs complūribus subsellīs obēsitāte cuiusdam rīsus exortus esset, nē sēdātō quidem tumultū temperāre potuit, quīn ex intervāllō subinde factī reminīscerētur cachinnōsque revocāret.

     In his youth he undertook to write a history, urged by Livy and helped by Sulpicius Flavus. And when he first called together a numerous auditory, he read it poorly and often interrupted by no one but himself. For when, at the beginning of the recitation, laughter was roused by more benches broken by somebody's fatness, not even with the tumult sedated could he calm down, but from time to time remembered the event and brought laughter back.

2. (hapax, poetic) flashing, roaring (of the sea)
   • c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, Carmina 64.269–277:

     Hīc, quālis flātū placidum mare mātūtīnō
     horrificāns Zephyrus prōclīvās incitat undās
     aurōra exoriente vagī sub līmina sōlis,
     quae tardē prīmum clēmentī flāmine pulsae
     prōcēdunt, leviterque sonant plangōre cachinnī,
     post ventō crēscente magis magis incrēbēscunt
     purpureāque procul nantēs ab lūce refulgent,
     sīc tum vestibulī linquentēs rēgia tēcta
     ad sē quisque vagō passim pede discēdēbant.

     • 1894 translation by Sir Richard Francis Burton

       Even as Zephyrus' breath, seas couching placid at dawn-tide,
       Roughens, then stings and spurs the wavelets slantingly fretted—
       Rising Aurora the while 'neath Sol the wanderer's threshold—
       Tardy at first they flow by the clement breathing of breezes
       Urged, and echo the shores with soft-toned ripples of laughter,
       But as the winds wax high so waves wax higher and higher,
       Flashing and floating afar to outswim morn's purpurine splendours,—
       So did the crowd fare forth, the royal vestibule leaving,
       And to their house each wight with vaguing paces departed.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cachinnus	cachinnī
Genitive	cachinnī	cachinnōrum
Dative	cachinnō	cachinnīs
Accusative	cachinnum	cachinnōs
Ablative	cachinnō	cachinnīs
Vocative	cachinne	cachinnī

Descendants

• Italian: cachinno

References

• “cachinnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cachinnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cachinnus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to burst into a roar of laughter: cachinnum tollere, edere