Etymologically
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aculeus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aˈkʊ.ɫe.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈkuː.le.us][1]

Forms

aculeus m (genitive aculeī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin acus (“needle”) + -uleus, a diminutive suffix;[2][1] Priscian took it as a diminutive of that noun with a change of gender.[3] The TLL compares acuō “to sharpen”, and perhaps an Anglo-Saxon word for a fork.[4] De Vaan traces the base to Proto-Italic *aku- and Proto-Indo-European *h2eḱ-u- (“pointed”), and compares Lithuanian ãšutas (“hair of a horse's tail or mane”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,[6] whose speaker in the Trinummus says a sting has long been pricking his heart, wondering what a man was doing outside his house.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is the sting of an insect or scorpion, and by extension a spine of a fish, the spur of a fowl and a thorn or prickle of a plant.[2][3] Livy uses it of the barb of an arrow.[2][3] Most uses are figurative: the sting of sharp remarks or arguments, as in Cicero's arguments that prick like little questions, the pang of worry or doubt, and a spur to action.[2][3] Cicero speaks of plucking out the stings of the judges' severity, and of a witness who died after leaving his sting behind, the phrase aculeum ēmittere.[3][2] The Vulgate has the stings of locusts.[3] Church Latin uses it of a sharp point or sting.[7] The grammarian Probus insists on the masculine hic aculeus, not haec aculea.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of the sting of worry.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the sting of a scorpion and of sharp words.[2][3]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of the barb of an arrow.[2][3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of the spur of a fowl.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sting of an insect or other animal; a spine of a fish; the spur of a fowl.[2][3][1]
  2. A thorn or prickle of a plant.[2][3][1]
  3. The barb of an arrow; a pointed implement.[2][3]
  4. (figurative) A sting, dart of words; a pang of worry or doubt; a spur to action.[2][3][1]
  5. aculeum ēmittere: to leave one's sting behind, spend one's venom.[2]

Word family

  • aculeātus
  • aculeolus
  • acūleōnis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson