The corpus record — Latin

canus

white (esp. of hair)

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Phaedra 3 · 4.22/10k
De Tranquillitate Animi 3 · 3.97/10k
Hercules 3 · 3.94/10k
Parentalia 1 · 3.85/10k
Epigrammata 20 · 3.55/10k
In Rufinum 2 · 3.49/10k
Carmina 4 · 3.11/10k
Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 2.88/10k
Epigrammata Ausonii de diversis rebus 1 · 2.74/10k
Ibis 1 · 2.54/10k
Elegiae 3 · 2.43/10k
Eclogues 1 · 2.2/10k

Densest 12 of 56 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. canus — de Vaan

canus 'white (esp. of hair)' [adj. ο/α] (P1.+) Derivatives: canutus 'grey' (PL; uncertain attestation). Pit. *kasno- 'grey'. It cognates: Pael. casnar [nom.sg.] 'old man' (also in Paul, ex F.) < *kasnari~. PIE *lchiS-no- 'grey\ IE cognates: W. ceinach 'hare'; Skt. sasa- [m.] (< *sasa- < *kh r es-), KhoL saha-, OPr. sasins [m.], OHG haso, OE hara, OIc. heri 'hare', OHG — [de Vaan, s.v. canus, p. 102]

2. cānus — Lewis & Short

cānus, a, um, adj.Sanscr. Kas-, to shine; cf. cascus,

I white, hoary (mostly poet.).

I Lit.: fluctus, Lucr. 2, 767; Cic. Arat. 71; hence aqua, foamy, frothy, Ov. H. 2, 16: nix, white, Lucr. 3, 21; Hor. S. 2, 5, 41: gelu, Verg. G. 3, 442: montes, id. ib. 1, 43: pruina, hoar-frost, Hor. C. 1, 4, 4: grandine canus Athos, Ov. Ib. 200: salicta, id. M. 5, 590: segetes, id. ib. 10, 655: aristae, id. ib. 6, 456: lupus, id. ib. 6, 527; 7, 550: favilla, id. ib. 8, 524: color equi, Pall. Mart. 14, 4: arborum villi, Plin. 12, 23, 50, § 108: situs, id. 12, 25, 55, § 125.—

B Esp. freq. of the gray hair of the aged: cano capite atque albā barbā, Plaut. Bacch. 5, 1, 15; id. As. 5, 2, 84; Cat. 68, 124; Tib. 1, 1, 72; Ov. F. 5, 57: capilli, Hor. C. 2, 11, 15; Ov. M. 1, 266; 2, 30; 4, 474; Phaedr. 2, 2, 10: crinis, Cat. 64, 350; Ov. M. 13, 427: barba, Mart. 4, 36 al.—Hence, subst. in plur.: cāni, ōrum, m. (sc. capilli), gray hairs: non cani, non rugae repente auctoritatem arripere possunt, Cic. Sen. 18, 62; Ov. M. 3, 275; in Aug. and post-Aug. poets (esp. freq. in Ovid) with adjj.: falsi, Ov. M. 6, 26: honorati, id. ib. 8, 9: positi, id. ib. 14, 655: rari, id. ib. 8, 567: sui, id. ib. 10, 391: miseri, Pers. 5, 65: venerandi. Sen. Herc. Fur. 1249.—Hence,

II Transf., of age and of aged persons. old, aged: senectus, hoary, Cat. 108, 1: anilitas, id. 61, 162: amator, Tib. 1, 8, 29: cana veritas, venerable, Varr. ap. Non. p. 243, 1: Fides, Verg. A. 1, 292: Vesta, id. ib. 5, 744.

In the wild

cana Statius, Achilleis 1.235
canos Tertullian, Ad Nationes 2.12
cana Prudentius, Hamartigenia 1.853
canos Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 4.5e.2
canos Lucan, Pharsalia 1.188
canos Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.9

6 of 139 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. canus (scan p. 102; entry #198). Root candidates: *kasno-, *sasa-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. canus (scan p. 118; entry #1691).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.