%0 Journal Article
%T Sur l’étymologie du latin virgō « vierge »
%A Garnier, Romain
%J Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia
%V 2014
%R 10.4467/20843836SE.14.003.1646
%N Volume 19, Issue 2
%P 59-70
%K etymology, Latin, Hittite, Proto-Indo-European
%@ 1427-8219
%D 2014
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-etymologica-cracoviensia/article/sur-letymologie-du-latin-virgo-vierge
%X 
	On the etymology of Latin virgō ‘virgin’.

	The following paper is intended to explain the etymology of Lat. uirgō ‘virgin’, which serves both as adjective and sub- stantive. There is a synchronic opposition in Latin between uirgō and mulier ‘woman’, the last of which clearly alludes to sexuality, in such a locution as mulierem reddere ‘to make someone a woman’. According to the Hittite formula natta=arkant- ‘not-covered, unmounted’, which is used for sheep and cows, this puzzling Latin word could be ac- counted for by a PIE privative compound *h1 í-h1  h-ō n ‘not-covered, unmounted’. This inherited vocable would eventually belong to the PIE root *h1 er h- ‘to mount, cover’ which is likely to have been used by cattle-breeders.