ampulla

Forms

ampulla f (genitive ampullae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin amphora (“two-handled jar”), a diminutive formed irregularly from it.^[2][3][1] Lewis & Short give, besides this, an older explanation from amb- (“on both sides”) and olla (“pot”), for a vessel with handles on both sides,^[4] and Etymonline calls the origin uncertain, perhaps a contracted form of the diminutive.^[5] Ancient grammarians explained it differently: Isidore of Seville took it as ampla bulla, a large bubble, from its round shape.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus on;^[3] in the Persa an oil flask and a strigil are listed among the things a parasite should own.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a round-bellied bottle with a narrow neck for oil, ointment or wine, sometimes of leather or glass.^[2][1][3] Cicero uses it,^[4] and Petronius has Sibyllam … vīdī in ampullā pendere, “I saw the Sibyl hanging in a bottle”.^[3][6] From its swollen shape the plural came to mean bombast: a poem of the Virgilian Catalepton sends away inānēs rhētorum ampullae, “the empty bombast of the rhetoricians”, and Horace has prōicit ampullās et sesquipedālia verba, “throws away bombast and words a foot and a half long”.^[2][4][6] In medieval Latin it was a cruet for the wine and water of the Mass, a flask for holy oil or for relic blood, and a lamp;^[7][8] it could also mean a bladder or blister.^[1] English borrowed it as ampulla, and through Old French as ampoule.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus lists an oil flask among a parasite's things.^[2][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^[4][9]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses the plural for bombast.^[4][9]
• before 66 AD – Petronius tells of the Sibyl hanging in a bottle.^[3][9]
• c. 1200 – English ampoule is recorded, from Old French.^[5]
• late 14th century – English ampulla is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A round-bellied flask or bottle with a narrow neck, for oil, ointment or wine.^[2][4][10]
2. (figurative, plural) Inflated language, bombast.^[2][4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A cruet for the wine and water of the Mass; a flask for holy oil.^[7][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A bladder; a blister, swelling.^[1]

Word family

• ampullaceus
• ampullarius
• ampullor

Related words

• amphora
• English ampoule

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson