vellus

Latin

Alternative forms

• villus

Etymology

Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“hair, wool”), and connected to Latin lāna (“wool”) and Gaulish vlana. This is favored by Meiser, but rejected by Schrijver and de Vaan, the latter who instead proposes the word as a derivative of vellō (“to pluck out”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯el.lus/, [ˈu̯ɛlːʲʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvel.lus/, [ˈvɛlːus]

Noun

vellus n (genitive velleris); third declension

1. The wool shorn from a sheep; fleece; wool
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.765–766:

     ‘nēve minus multōs redigam, quam māne fuērunt,
     nēve gemam referēns vellera rapta lupō.’

     ‘‘And may I not drive back fewer [but] as many [sheep] as there were in the morning;
     nor will I bemoan bringing back fleeces having been snatched from a wolf.’’
     (A shepherd’s prayer to Pales.)

2. The hide or pelt of an animal

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	vellus	vellera
genitive	velleris	vellerum
dative	vellerī	velleribus
accusative	vellus	vellera
ablative	vellere	velleribus
vocative	vellus	vellera

Synonyms

• (wool): lāna

Descendants

• Catalan: velló
• > Italian: veglio (inherited), → vello (learned)
• Portuguese: velo
• Sicilian: veḍḍu
• Spanish: vellón

References

• “vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “vellus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• vellus 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)
• vellus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.