silanus

Latin

Etymology

From Doric Greek σῑλᾱνός (sīlānós). Doublet of sīlēnus, Sīlēnus, and Silvānus, and cognate with Attic Greek σῑληνός (sīlēnós).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [siːˈɫaː.nʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [siˈlaː.nus]

Noun

sīlānus m (genitive sīlānī); second declension

1. (poetic) a jet or stream of water (or some other liquid) arching through the air, such as one issued from a fountain
   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 6.1260
   • c. 25 BCE – c. 50 CE, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, De medicina 3.15
   • c. 2nd century, Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatione 352

Usage notes

• Often glossed as "fountain" in traditional dictionaries, which is misleading, because sīlānus does not refer to water fixtures, but rather the stream of water itself.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	sīlānus	sīlānī
genitive	sīlānī	sīlānōrum
dative	sīlānō	sīlānīs
accusative	sīlānum	sīlānōs
ablative	sīlānō	sīlānīs
vocative	sīlāne	sīlānī

Further reading

• “sīlānus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sīlānus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• silanus in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung