Iuno

Latin

Juno or Hera Barberini, a 2nd-century statue of the goddess at the Vatican

Alternative forms

• Jūnō

Etymology

There are two hypotheses:

• From Proto-Indo-European *dyúh₃onh₂-, *dyúh₃nh₂- (“having heavenly authority”), from *dyew- (“sky, heaven”) + *-Hō (“burden, authority”), rendering Iuvō, *Iūnis, normalized to Iūnō, Iūnōnis. See Ancient Greek Διώνη (Diṓnē, “Dione”);
• From Proto-Indo-European *h₂yúh₃onh₂-, *h₂yúh₃nh₂- (“the young goddess”), from *h₂óyu (“long time, lifetime”) + *-Hō (“burden, authority”) also rendering *Iuvō, *Iūnis, normalized to Iūnō, Iūnōnis. See Latin iuvenis (“young”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈi̯uː.noː/, [ˈi̯uːnoː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈju.no/, [ˈjuːno]

Proper noun

Iūnō f sg (genitive Iūnōnis); third declension

1. (Roman mythology, religion) Juno, queen of the gods, patron of rulers and childbirth, equivalent to the Greek Hera.
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti VI.283–288:

     cur sit virginibus, quæris, dea culta ministris? / inveniam causas hac quoque parte suas. / ex Ope Iunonem memorant Cereremque creatas / semine Saturni; tertia Vesta fuit. / utraque nupserunt, ambæ peperisse feruntur; / de tribus impatiens restitit una viri.

     Why, you ask, is the goddess tended by virgin ministers? I’ll discover the true causes for this as well. They say that Juno and Ceres were born of Ops by Saturn’s seed; Vesta was the third daughter. The other two married, both reported to have borne children; of the three, one remained who could not bear a husband.

2. (New Latin) Juno, a Main Belt asteroid.

Declension

Third-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Iūnō
genitive	Iūnōnis
dative	Iūnōnī
accusative	Iūnōnem
ablative	Iūnōne
vocative	Iūnō

Derived terms

• Iuno Caprotina
• Iuno Curitis
• Iūnō Lūcīna
• Iūnō Monēta
• Iūnō Rēgīna
• Iuno Sospita
• Iūnōnicola

 

References

• Clackson, James, Indo-European Word Formation: Proceedings from the International Conference, 2002

Further reading

• “Iūnō”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Jūno”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Jūno in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 873/1.
• Iūno in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, column 494
• “Iuno”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Middle English

Proper noun

Iuno

1. Alternative form of Juno