agnus

From Proto-Italic *agʷnos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷnós (“lamb”).[1]

Cognates include Ancient Greek ἀμνός (amnós), Old Church Slavonic агнѧ (agnę), Old English ēanian (English yean), and Albanian enjë.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈaɡ.nus/, [ˈäŋnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈaɲ.ɲus/, [ˈäɲːus]

• Audio (educated guess for Classical)

  (file)

agnus m (genitive agnī); second declension

1. a lamb, especially one used as a sacrifice

   Agnus absque maculā.

   A lamb without blemish.

   Villa abundat porco, haedo, agno.

   The farm abounds in pigs, young goats and lambs.

   Ecce Agnus Dei.

   Behold the Lamb of God.

Second-declension noun (contracted genitive plural).

¹Contraction found in poetry.

• Galician: año
• Italian: agno
• Neapolitan: àino
• Old French: agne, aigne, ainne
• Portuguese: anho
• Sicilian: aiuno, avuno, amuno (Calabrian)
• Catalan: anyell

• “agnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “agnus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• agnus 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)
• agnus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• agnus in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• “agnus” on page 97/2 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “agnus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 266
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “agnus”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 19

A verbal adjective from an unattested root *ag- ("to drive"), paralleled by Old Irish án (“quick”) < *ag-nos, Sanskrit अजिर (ajirá-, “agile, quick”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”); compare Old Irish aigid, Sanskrit अजति (ajati). The Lithuanian form appears to have undergone depalatalization before the nasal.[1]

The connection with Russian яглый (jaglyj, “active, energetic”) is rejected by Vasmer.[2]

IPA^(key): /ɐɡˈnʊs/

agnùs m (feminine agnì, neuter agnù) stress pattern 4

1. (Samogitian) agile, energetic

• agnumas
• agniai

• “agnus”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2024
• “agnus”, in Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian], ekalba.lt, 1954–2024