The corpus record — Latin

equus

horse

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

Where it lives

Appendix Vergiliana 4 · 36.5/10k
Ibis 11 · 27.99/10k
Verus 5 · 24.3/10k
de Origine et Situ Germanorum Liber 13 · 23.58/10k
Aeneid 127 · 20.05/10k
Hamilcar 1 · 19.34/10k
Elegiae 46 · 18.17/10k
Ars Amatoria 26 · 17.47/10k
Remedia Amoris 9 · 17.17/10k
Epitaphia heroum qui bello Troico interfuerunt 2 · 16.67/10k
Medicamina faciei femineae 1 · 16.31/10k
Culex, Appendix Vergiliana 4 · 15.31/10k

Densest 12 of 214 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. equus — de Vaan

equus 'horse' [m. o] (Andr.+) Derivatives: equa 'mare7 (P1.+), equola 'young mare' (PL+), eculeus 'foal, pony' (Varro+); equile 'stable for horses' (Cato+), eqmnus 'of horses' (Acc.+); equiso 'horse groom' (Vairo+); equaria 'herd of horses' (Varro), Equirria/Ecurria, -drum [n.pl.] 'annual horse races' (Varro*); eques, -itis [m.] 'horse rider; knight' (PL+); — [de Vaan, s.v. equus, p. 206]

2. ĕquus — Lewis & Short

ĕquus, i (

I gen. plur. equūm, Verg. G. 2, 542; Stat. Th. 4, 409 al.), m. Sanscr. acvas; Gr. i(/ppos (i)/kkos); cf. Epŏna; root, ak-, to be sharp or swift; cf. Gr. a)/kros, w)ku/s; Lat. acus, ocior, a horse, steed, charger.

I Prop.

A In gen. (cf.: caballus, canterius, mannus), Varr. R. R. 2, 7; Col. 6, 27 sq.; Plin. 8, 42, 64, § 154 sq.; Pall. Mart. 13; Enn. ap. Cic. de Sen. 5, 14 (Ann. v. 441 ed. Vahlen); Plaut. Bacch. 1, 1, 39; id. Men. 5, 2, 109; Cic. Rep. 1, 43; 1, 7, 9 et saep.: equus = equa, Varr. R. R. 2, 7, 11.—Offered as a sacrifice to Mars, Paul. ex Fest. p. 81, 16, and p. 178, 24 sq. Müll.; cf. Prop. 4 (5), 1, 20; and v. October: EQVO PVBLICO ORNATVS, EXORNATVS, HONORATVS, etc.; or, ellipt., EQVO PVBLICO, very often in inscriptions; v. Inscr. Momms. 73; 459; 445; 1952; 2456; 2865 al.—In another sense: equi publici, post-horses, Amm. 14, 6.—Equo vehi, advehi, ire, desilire, equum conscendere, flectere, in equum ascendere, equo citato, concitato, etc., see under these verbs.—

B In partic.

1 Of cavalry, in the phrase, equis virisque (viri = pedites; cf. eques and vir), adverb., with horse and foot, i. e. with might and main, with tooth and nail, Liv. 5, 37; Flor. 2, 7, 8; also: equis, viris, Cic. Phil. 8, 7, 21; id. Fam. 9, 7; cf. Nep. Hamilc. 4; and in the order, viris equisque, Cic. Off. 3, 33.—

2 Transf., of race-horses: ego cursu corrigam tarditatem tum equis, tum vero, quoniam scribis poëma ab eo nostrum probari, quadrigis poeticis, i. e. in prose and poetry, Cic. Q. Fr. 2, 15, a (see the passage in connection).—

C Transf.

1 In plur. (like i(/ppoi in Homer), a chariot, Verg. A. 9, 777.—

2 The wind, Cat. 66, 54; Val. Fl. 1, 611.—

3 In mal. part., Hor. S. 2, 7, 50; Petr. 24, 4; App. M. 2, p. 122; Mart. 11, 104, 14.—

D Prov.: equi donati dentes non inspiciuntur, we don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Hier. Ep. ad Ephes. prooem.—

II Meton.

A Equus bipes, a sea-horse, Verg. G. 4, 389; Auct. Pervig. Ven. 10: fluviatilis, a river-horse, hippopotamus, Plin. 8, 21, 30, § 73.—

B Equus ligneus, like the Homeric a(lo\s i(/ppos, a ship, Plaut. Rud. 1, 5, 10.—

C The Trojan horse, Verg. A. 2, 112 sq.; Hyg. Fab. 108; Plaut. Bacch. 4, 9, 12; Prop. 3 (4), 1, 25; Hor. C. 4, 6, 13 al.— *

2 Trop., of a secret conspiracy, Cic. Mur. 37, 78.—

D A battering-ram, because shaped like a horse; afterwards called aries, Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 202.—

E The constellation Pegasus, Cic. N. D. 2, 43, 111 sq.; Col. 11, 2, 31; Hyg. Astr. 2, 18; 3, 17.—

F Equus Trojanus, the title of a play of Livius Andronicus, Cic. Fam. 7, 1, 2 al.

3. equus — Walde–Hofmann

equus (für lautges. ecus, Sommer Hb.? 162), - m. „Pferd“ (seit Liv. Andr.), equa, -ae f. „Stute“ (seit Plt., rom. [neben iümentum, caballa, vgl. caballus, Wartburg II 233]: idg. *ekuos = ai. dévoh, av. aspa-, ap. asd- (gelehrt aspa-, Meillet Gramm. V.-P. 5f.) „Pferd“; gr. innog m. f. ("Alc-ınrag usw.), dial. (tarent. e i ikkog ds. (i- für é- unklar; s. die Lit. bei Walde-P. 1113, dazu Meillet MSL. 21, 87, Whatmough … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. equus, p. 444]

In the wild

equos Tacitus, Annales 1.p68
equo Statius, Achilleis 1.235
equum Tacitus, de Origine et Situ Germanorum Liber 14.3
equos Livy, Ab urbe condita 2.30.17.13
equis Sallust, Catilina 59
equum Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 4.20.11.p1

6 of 2,528 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. equus (scan p. 206; entry #494).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. equus (scan pp. 223-224; entry #3468).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. equus (scan pp. 444-446; entry #1018). Root candidates: *epälo-, *jher-, *hors-.

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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.