sonivius

Latin

FWOTD – 12 April 2016

Etymology

From sonus (“sound”, “noise”) +‎ -īvus +‎ -ius. Compare lixīvus, lixīvius.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /soˈniː.u̯i.us/, [s̠ɔˈniːu̯iʊs̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /soˈni.vi.us/, [soˈniːvius]

Adjective

sonīvius (feminine sonīvia, neuter sonīvium); first/second-declension adjective

(in augural language, attested modifying tripudium only) noisy (of the rattling of the corn upon the ground as it fell from the mouths of the sacred chickens)
(Can we find and add a quotation of Cato the Elder to this entry?)
- 62 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 6.6.7.6:
  non igitur ex alitis involatu nec e cantu sinistro oscinis, ut in nostra disciplina est, nec ex tripudiis solistimis aut soniviis tibi auguror, sed habeo alia signa quae observem; quae etsi non sunt certiora illis, minus tamen habent vel obscuritatis vel erroris.
  I make a prediction to you, not from the flight of a bird and not from the singing on the left of a bird, in the manner of our system (of augury), nor from the most favorable or noisy eating from the ground (of the sacred birds), but I have other signs that I observe, which though they are not more certain than those, yet nevertheless have less of obscurity or error.
- AD 77–79, C. Plinius Secundus (aut.), K.F.T. Mayhoff (ed.), Naturalis Historia (1906), bk XV, ch. xxviii:
  quae causa eas nuptiis fecit religiosas, tot modis fetu munito, quod est veri similius quam quia cadendo tripudium sonivium faciant.
  It is for this reason that this fruit has been looked upon as a symbol consecrated to marriage, its offspring being thus protected in such manifold ways: an explanation which bears a much greater air of probability than that which would derive it from the rattling which it makes when it bounds from the floor. ― translation from: J. Bostock and H.T. Riley, The Natural History (1855), bk XV, ch. xxiv (xxii)
- 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 290, lines 31-32:
  Sonivio significat in carmine augurali, sonanti.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- ibidem, page 297, lines 19–22:
  Sonivium tripudium, ut ait Appius Pulcher, quod sonet, cum pullo excidit plus, quadrupedive.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sonivius.

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	masculine	feminine	neuter	masculine	feminine	neuter
	singular			plural
nominative	sonīvius	sonīvia	sonīvium	sonīviī	sonīviae	sonīvia
genitive	sonīviī	sonīviae	sonīviī	sonīviōrum	sonīviārum	sonīviōrum
dative	sonīviō	sonīviae	sonīviō	sonīviīs
accusative	sonīvium	sonīviam	sonīvium	sonīviōs	sonīviās	sonīvia
ablative	sonīviō	sonīviā	sonīviō	sonīviīs
vocative	sonīvie	sonīvia	sonīvium	sonīviī	sonīviae	sonīvia

Synonyms

(noisy): sonāns, sonāx, sonōrus

References

“sŏnĭvĭus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“sonivius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
sŏnĭvĭus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,457/3.
“sonīuius” on page 1,791/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)