rutilus

Meaning

1. adjectivelight(-haired), blond, red
   Lȳs.: Tūn capite cānō amās, senex nēquissime? / Dēm.: Sī cānum seu istuc rutilum sīve ātrumst, amō.Lys.: You, with your grey head, you love, most wretched geezer? / Dem.: Whether grey, whether that head is blond or black, I love.c. 206 BCE – 188 BCE, Plautus, Mercator
   apud Accium: 'iamque aurōram rutilāre procul cernō.' aurōra dīcitur ante sōlis ortum, ab eō quod ab ignī sōlis tum aureō āēr aurēscit. quod addit 'rutilāre', est ab eōdem colōre: aureī enim rutilī, et inde etiam mulierēs valdē rūfae rutilae dictae.In Accius: 'iamque auroram rutilare procul cerno.' 'Aurora' means before sunrise, from the fact that air (i.e., the sky) starts turning golden from the sun's fire which is then golden. That he adds 'rutilare', is from the same color: for aureus coins are yellow, and from that as well very red-haired women are called fair-haired.116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina 8
2. adjectiveyellow, red, light-colored, bright (somewhat like a strong grade of rūfus)
   Grip.: Quid mē intrō revocās? hoc volō hīc ante ōstium extergēre. / nam hoc quidem pol ē rōbīgine, nōn est ē ferrō factum, / ita quantō magis extergeō, rutilum atque tenuius fit. / nam quidem hoc venēnātumst vērum: ita in manibus cōnsenēscit. / L.: Adulēscēns, salvē. G.: Dī tē ament cum inrāsō capite. L.: Quid fit? / G.: Vērum extergētur.Grip.: Stop calling me to go back in. I want to polish off this thing here before the entrance. / Because this thing I swear it's made from rust, not from iron / the more I scrape it the more it's getting bright rusty and too thin / because it's been cursed, truly, it ages and withers in my hands. / L.: Boy, hello there. G.: Gods love you with unshaven head. L.: What's up? / G.: Polishing is happening here.c. 211 BCE, Plautus, Rudens

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

Declension

Origins

Possibly either: * from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *h₂réw-ti-s ~ *h₂ru-téy-s, from *h₂rew- (“to shine”) + *-tis, perhaps cognate to Proto-Celtic *ruteinos (“shiny reddish, rust colored”), via either: ** If one follows Sen in supposing an origin from older rutulus with labial dissimilation, one can derive this from *rutis (“redness”) + *-elos (desubstantival suffix); ** Via reconstructing -i- as the original second vowel instead of *-e-; some scholars believe that *-i- did not merge with *-e- during vowel reductions before -l-: *** Schaffner reconstructs Proto-Italic *rutilos and segments this as Proto-Indo-European *h₂ruti-lo-; *** Prósper posits instead Proto-Italic *rutiðos, the -ilus in Latin thus serving as a lambdacized counterpart to Latin -idus. * or dissimilated from Proto-Italic *rutrelos (compare Latin clītellae) also with labial dissimilation, from *rutros, variant of *ruðros (“red”) (whence Latin ruber (“red”)) + *-elos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰ-ró-s (“red”), from *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”) + *-rós.

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