allec

Forms

allēc n (genitive allēcis); third declension^[1] Also spelled hallēc, alēc and halēc, and as a masculine or feminine allēx (hallēx, alēx).^[2][3][4] Grammarians prescribe the form in ⟨-c⟩.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Köbler takes it as borrowed from Ancient Greek ἁλικόν (halikón, “brine”), related to ἁλυκός (halukós, “salty”) and ἅλς (háls, “salt”),^[5] and Wiktionary derives it from the last of these.^[1] The TLL rejects Keller's folk-etymological explanation.^[3] Isidore thought the fish called ⟨allec⟩ was named from the brine it was used for.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus: in one fragment someone wishes that those who serve him raw vegetables would add hallēc to them, and in the Poenulus it is applied to a man as a term of abuse.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a fish sauce, the unstrained sediment left from making garum.^[2][4] Cato prescribes allēc and vinegar once the olives have been eaten, and in Horace a speaker claims to have been the first to serve it with wine lees in small dishes.^[3][4] Pliny the Elder calls it the dregs of garum, imperfect and unstrained, and says that it later came to be made on its own from a tiny, useless fish, then grew into a luxury made from oysters and mullet livers; he also prescribes it for scab in sheep, for ulcers and for warts.^[3] Amphorae from Pompeii are labelled allēx optuma, “best allec”.^[3]

Isidore of Seville uses it for the small fish itself, one suited to making brine.^[6][3] In Medieval Latin it became the usual word for the herring: Ælfric's Colloquy glosses it with Old English hærincgas, and medieval charters and accounts count herrings in thousands.^[7][8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Aulularia and the Poenulus.^[3][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato has it given with vinegar.^[3][4][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace serves it in small dishes.^[3][4][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes it as the dregs of garum.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it of a small fish.^[6][5]
• 1031 – Records of St Ulrich at Augsburg price a cask of herrings at two pence.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fish sauce, the sediment left from making garum.^[2][4][3]
2. (Late Latin) A small fish suited to making fish brine.^[6][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A herring.^[8][7][5]

Usage notes

The Appendix Probi lists allec non allex, “allec, not allex”, against the form in ⟨-x⟩.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 o p q Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.