cothurnus

Alternative forms

• cothurn, kothornos

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin cothurnus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κόθορνος (kóthornos).

Noun

cothurnus (plural cothurni)

1. A buskin used in ancient tragedy.
2. (figurative) The stilted style denoting ancient tragedy.
   • 1875, Henry James, Roderick Hudson, New York Edition 1909, hardcover, page 410

     Madame Grandoni had insisted on the fact that she was an actress, and this little speech seemed a glimpse of the cothurnus.

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κόθορνος (kóthornos).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /koˈtʰur.nus/, [kɔˈt̪ʰʊrnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /koˈtur.nus/, [koˈt̪urnus]

Noun

cothurnus m (genitive cothurnī); second declension

1. cothurnus, buskin
2. tragedy (dramatic or poetic style)

References

• “cothurnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cothurnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• cothurnus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cothurnus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cothurnus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cothurnus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin