The corpus record — Latin

niger

black, dark

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

Where it lives

Pescennius Niger 15 · 65.88/10k
Medicamina faciei femineae 2 · 32.63/10k
Severus 13 · 30.87/10k
Dirae, Appendix Vergiliana 2 · 30.82/10k
Clodius Albinus 6 · 22.2/10k
Didius Julianus 3 · 18.87/10k
Georgicon 18 · 12.72/10k
Naturalis Historia 502 · 12.66/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 2 · 11.75/10k
Carmina 13 · 9.78/10k
Elegiae 12 · 9.71/10k
Epigrammata 54 · 9.59/10k

Densest 12 of 103 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. niger — de Vaan

niger 'black, dark' [adj. o/a] (PL+) Derivatives: nigellus 'blackish' (Varro+), nigror 'blackness* (Pac.+), nigrare 'to be black' (Varro+), nigrere 'to grow dark' (Pac.+), nigritia 'black(ish) colour' (Varro apud Plin.+), nigricolus 'a little dark' (Varro); denigrare 'to blacken' (Varro+); rperniger Very dark' (PI.). Unknown etymology. BibL: WH II: 168, EM 441. — [de Vaan, s.v. niger, p. 423]

2. nĭger — Lewis & Short

nĭger, gra, grum (

I gen. fem. nigraï, Lucr. 4, 537; comp. nigrior, Ov. H. 18, 7), adj., black, sable, dark, dusky (cf.: ater, pullus).

I Lit.: quae alba sint, quae nigra, dicere, Cic. Div. 2, 3, 9: quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses, Verg. E. 2, 16: hederae nigrae, id. G. 2, 258: silvae (= umbrosae), Hor. C. 1, 21, 7: frons, id. ib. 4, 4, 58: collis, id. ib. 4, 12, 11: lucus, Ov. F. 3, 295 (for which atrum nemus, Verg. A. 1, 165): caelum pice nigrius, Ov. H. 18, 7: nigerrimus Auster, i. e. causing darkness, Verg. G. 3, 278; so, venti, Hor. C. 1, 5, 7: Eurus, id. Epod. 10, 5: nigros efferre maritos, i. e. killed by poison, Juv. 1, 71; cf.: pocula nigra, poisoned, Prop. 2, 20, 68 (3, 23, 10).—Prov.: facere candida de nigris; nigra in candida vertere, to turn black into white, Juv. 3, 29; cf. Ov. M. 11, 315.—Subst.: nĭgrum, i, n., a black spot, Ov. A. A. 1, 291.—

II Trop.

A Of or pertaining to death: nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium (= lugubris rogi), of the funeral pile, Hor. C. 4, 12, 26: hora, Tib. 3, 5, 5: dies, the day of death, Prop. 2 (3), 19, 19. Juppiter niger, i. e. Pluto, Sen. Herc. Oet. 1705.—

B Sad, mournful: domus, Stat. S. 5, 1, 18; Val. Fl. 3, 404.—

C Unlucky, ill-omened: huncine solem Tam nigrum surrexe mihi? Hor. S. 1, 9, 72; Prop. 2, 21, 38 (3, 25, 4): lapis, the spot in the Comitium where Romulus or one of his adherents was slain, Paul. ex Fest. p. 177 Müll.—

D Of character, black, bad, wicked: Phormio, nec minus niger, nec minus confidens, quam ille Terentianus est Phormio, Cic. Caecin. 10, 27: hic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto, Hor. S. 1, 4, 85.

3. Nĭger — Lewis & Short

Nĭger, gri, m.,

I a Roman surname: Aquilius Niger, Suet. Aug. 11.

4. Nĭger — Lewis & Short

Nĭger, gris, m.,

I a river in Africa, Mart. Cap. 6, § 673; v. Nigris.

5. niger — Walde–Hofmann

niger (nigrus Orib., Merland Oribasiusübers. 119), -a, -um „schwarz“ (Normalwort gegenüber mehr affektischem äter, Marouzeau REL. 10, 370; seit Enn., rom., ebenso nigritia f. „Schwärze“ seit Plin. [-i2s seit Cels.], nigräster „schwärzlich“ Firm., nigella f. ,Schwarzkümmel" Gl. [-àtum „Schwarzkümmelöl® Paul. :Nol., Adj. -us seit Varro, vgl. PN. Nigelliö], nigresco „werde schwarz“ seit Verg. und migricó [nach albico] … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. niger, p. 1074]

In the wild

niger Martial, Epigrammata 12.24.6
nigra Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.7.p1
nigro Celsus, De Medicina 3.23.p1
nigro Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 14.16.p6
nigra Martial, Epigrammata 7.35.1
Nigro Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 1.34.p65

6 of 1,136 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. niger (scan p. 423; entry #1143).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. niger (scan p. 465; entry #7483).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. niger (scan pp. 1074-1077; entry #1849). Root candidates: *nöfilgo-, *nei-, *ni-.

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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.