nurus

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

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.rus/, [ˈnʊrʊs̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈnu.rus/, [ˈnuːrus]

Noun

nurus f (genitive nurūs); fourth declension

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.
(transferred sense) young married woman, young lady

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	nurus	nurūs
genitive	nurūs	nuruum
dative	nuruī	nuribus
accusative	nurum	nurūs
ablative	nurū	nuribus
vocative	nurus	nurūs

Descendants

see: nura, *nora, and *norum

References

^ 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
^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 38
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “nŭrus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 7: N–Pas, page 246

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Declension

Descendants

References

Further reading