ursus

See also: Ursus

Latin

ursus (a bear)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Italic *orssos

Latin ursus

From Proto-Italic *orssos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”). The initial u- is unexpected, and may have arisen as a taboo distortion. For the outcome s of original *tḱ compare sinō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈur.sus/, [ˈʊrs̠ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈur.sus/, [ˈursus]

Noun

ursus m (genitive ursī); second declension

1. a bear

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	ursus	ursī
genitive	ursī	ursōrum
dative	ursō	ursīs
accusative	ursum	ursōs
ablative	ursō	ursīs
vocative	urse	ursī

Derived terms

• ursa
• ursīna
• ursīnus

Descendants

• Aragonese: onso
• Aromanian: ursu
• Asturian: osu
• Catalan: os
• Corsican: orsu
• → Esperanto: urso
• Friulian: ors
• Italian: orso
• Ladin: lors
• Ladino: lonso
• Occitan: ors
• Old French: urs
  • Middle French: ours
    • French: ours
• Old Galician-Portuguese: usso, osso, husso
  • Galician: oso
  • Portuguese: usso
• Old Spanish: osso
  • Spanish: oso, osso (obsolete), joso (New Mexico)
    • → Yaqui: hooso
• → Portuguese: urso
• Romanian: urs
• Romansch: urs, uors
• Sardinian: ursu
• Sicilian: ursu
• Translingual: Ursus
• Venetan: ors, orso
• Walloon: oûsse

References

• “ursus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ursus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ursus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “ursus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ursus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray