The corpus record — Latin

torvus

grim, fierce

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

Where it lives

Culex, Appendix Vergiliana 3 · 11.48/10k
Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 9.12/10k
Phaedra 6 · 8.43/10k
Panegyricus de tertio consulatu Honorii Augusti 1 · 7.24/10k
de raptu Proserpinae 5 · 7.17/10k
Thebais 36 · 5.76/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 2 · 5.05/10k
Panegyricus dictus Manlio Theodoro consuli 1 · 4.65/10k
Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii Augusti 1 · 4.57/10k
Achilleis 3 · 4.16/10k
Silvae 10 · 3.99/10k
Hercules 3 · 3.94/10k

Densest 12 of 60 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. torvus — de Vaan

torvus 'grim, fierce' [adj. o/a\ (Pac.+) Derivatives: torviter 'grimly' (Enn,+), Pit *torfo-. PIE *torgw-o- 'grim, angry'·»IE cognates: Hit tarkiiuant- 'looking angrily' < *trgw-enl·, tarkuua [adv.] 'angrily/, Epic Skt tarjati 'to threaten' (EWAia III: 238), Gr. ταρβέω 'to be startled'. ; f WH connects torvus with trux, which seems formally difficult BibL: WH II: 695, EM 697, Kloekhorst 2008: 844. — [de Vaan, s.v. torvus, p. 639]

2. torvus — Lewis & Short

torvus, a, um, adj.perh. for torg-vus; Sanscr. root targ-, to threaten, orig. of the eyes,

I staring, keen, piercing, wild, stern; hence, in gen., wild, fierce, grim, gloomy, savage, in aspect or character (poet. and in post-Aug. prose; syn.: trux, truculentus, ferus): ille tuens oculis immitem Phinea torvis, Ov. M. 5, 92: oculi, Quint. 11, 3, 75; Val. Max. 5, 1, ext. 6: cernimus astantes lumine torvo Aetnaeos fratres, Verg. A. 3, 677; so, lumine, Ov. M. 9, 27; and absol.: aspicit hanc torvis (sc. oculis), id. ib. 6, 34: vultus, Hor. Ep. 1, 19, 12; Sen. Ira, 2, 35, 3; Val. Max. 3, 8, 6; Quint. 6, 1, 43; 11, 3, 160: facies, Sen. Ira, 1, 1, 3: forma minantis, Ov. P. 2, 8, 22: aspectus (equi), Plin. 8, 42, 64, § 154 optima torvae Forma bovis, Verg. G. 3, 51: frons (Polyphemi), Verg. A. 3, 636: torvi cymba senis, Prop. 3, 18 (4, 17), 24: feroci ingenio torvus praegrandi gradu, Pac. ap. Fest. p. 355: torvu' draco serpit, Cic. poët. N. D. 2, 42, 106: angues, Verg. A. 6, 571: leaena, id. E. 2, 63: aper, Prop. 2, 3, 6: taurus, Ov. M. 8, 132: juvencus, id. ib. 6, 115; 10, 237: Medusa, Ov. A. A. 2, 309: Mars, Hor. C. 1, 28, 17: Ister (as a horned river-god), Val. Fl. 8, 218 et saep.: ferox et torva confidentia, Pac. ap. Fest. p. 355 Müll.; cf. proclia, Cat. 66, 20: vina, i. e. harsh, sharp, tart, Plin. 17, 23, 35, § 213.—Comp.: voce hominis et tuba rudore torvior, App. Flor 3, p. 357.—Sup.: leonis torvissima facies, Arn. 6, p. 196.—

(b) torvum and torva, adverb., fiercely, sternly, sharply, etc.: torvumque repente Clamat, Verg. A. 7, 399: torvum lacrimans, Stat. Th. 12, 127: torva tuens, Verg. A. 6, 467; Val. Fl. 2, 255. — Adv.: torvĭter, sharply, severely, sternly (ante-class.): aliquem increpare, Enn. ap. Non. 516, 16 (Ann. v. 79 Vahl.); Pomp. ap. Non. 516, 15 (Com. Fragm. v. 18 Rib.).

3. torvus — Walde–Hofmann

torvus, -a, -um „wild, finster, graus, grimmig; sittenstreng* (seit Enn., ebenso torviter; torvitäs, -ätis f. „Grimmigkeit; Sittenstrenge“ seit Plin., torvídus, -a, -um seit Arnob.): wohl nach Persson Ger. 30°, Beitr. 179. 943 zu trux (s. d.); vgl. bes. ahd. drouwen, mhd. dräuwen, nhd. dräuen, drohen, ags. Prean ds. (Kluge!! s. drohen), über welche Sippe s. Trautmann Grm. Ltges. 28 m. Lit. — Gr. rdpfoc n. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. torvus, p. 1603]

In the wild

torvus Statius, Thebais 11.10
torvaque Ovid, Ex Ponto 2.8.22
torva Statius, Thebais 8.756
torva Claudian, Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 1.518
torvam Prudentius, Psychomachia 1.551
torva Statius, Thebais 4.527

6 of 205 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. torvus (scan p. 639; entry #1830). Root candidates: *torfo-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. toruus (scan p. 721; entry #11996).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. torvus (scan p. 1603; entry #3051). Root candidates: *to-.

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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.