acia

Forms

acia f (genitive aciae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is generally derived from acus “needle”, though de Vaan notes the sense is not obvious, since a thread is not sharp, and one would expect *aku-jā-.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”), the root of aciēs and acuō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Titinius, quoted by Nonius.^[2][5] Köbler dates Titinius to the end of the 2nd or beginning of the 1st century BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant a thread or yarn for sewing, as in Celsus' stitching of wounds.^[3][5][7] The phrase ab aciā et acū “from thread and needle” meant in great detail, as in Petronius.^[3][7]

It survives in Romanian ață and Italian accia “thread”.^[1]

Timeline

• end of 2nd century BC – Titinius uses it.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a surgical thread.^[5][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has ab aciā et acū.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thread, yarn.^[3]

Related words

• acus
• aciēs

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.