The etymology of the word 'anus' as in for 'old woman'?

Question

I apologise if it may seem like this is some prank post as it's my first but it is something I've been wondering about for a while now. When I was taking Latin lessons in high school I remember having to learn tables of words for inflection. I am 49yo now and for the German language I still remember for eg. "Aus,bei,mit,nach,seit,von,zu" as being dative prepositions.

Then I vaguely remember a Latin word table which had the words 'cadex' (wood) and 'anus' (old woman) in it. I've tried to find this table but have not been able to. All I know is it had to do with inflection.

But.. Over the course of the past years I've often wondered about the (I'm aware) comical relation between the Latin word for old woman being 'anus' and the fact that if one visualises a (modern day use version?) of the word anus I think of a toothless old woman. I know having researched this that 'anus' actually also means 'ring' but I'm profoundly curious about the 'real' etymology of the word.

Is there any way to find out or is someone here able to say anything about the apparent adjective link between the word 'anus' and the visual connotation of a toothless old woman and how this fits in the etymology of the word? Was it a pun? Is there a link at all? Or is it just a coincidence and/or my seemingly dirty mind playing tricks with me?

I really do apologise as I'm aware it may seem like I'm taking the piss here but I assure you I am not and it's an honest and very real question I would like to see answered.

Thank you.

Answer 1

The word anus "old woman" is unrelated to ānus "ring".

The former has a short initial vowel and is a fourth declension feminine noun and so declines identically to manus "hand", just without the initial m-. The latter has a long initial vowel and is a second declension masculine noun and so declines identically to rōmānus "Roman" without the initial rōm-.

De Vaan derives both from separate PIE roots. The former from a form of *h₂en-H-o- (although this would require a little massaging to get into a form that is fourth declension), and the latter from *h₁eh₂n-o- (which is perfectly regular, and has cognates in Goidelic and possible Armenian). There is no reason to believe the roots *h₂en- and *h₁eh₂n- are related (it's also possible that in the latter case the *n is actually a suffix and not part of the root at all).

So no, there's no reason to believe there is any idea of toothless old women's mouths resembling rings, at any stage of the language, although that may serve as a mnemonic for students.