ancilla

Forms

ancilla f (genitive ancillae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a diminutive of ⟨ancula⟩, the feminine of anculus (“servant”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan explains that ⟨anculus⟩ survived only in religious language and glosses; it was felt as a diminutive ⟨anc-ulus⟩, and a new diminutive gave ⟨ancilla⟩, the usual feminine counterpart of servus (“slave”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan, Köbler and Lewis and Short give Livius Andronicus as its first author.^[4][5][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a female slave or servant, a maid, the ordinary feminine of servus.^[2][3] Seneca uses it of things, as virtue, the highest mistress, handed over as a maid to pleasure, and Sallust as an insult to a man: Fufidius, a vile handmaid.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “handmaid, maidservant”, and in Medieval Latin ancilla Deī, “handmaid of God”, is a nun.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 280/260–before 200 BC – Livius Andronicus.^[4][5]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust as an insult to a man.^[2][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of virtue as a handmaid.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A maidservant, female slave, handmaid.^[2][1][6]
2. (figuratively) A handmaid, servant (of a thing); (as an insult to a man) a slave-girl.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) ancilla Deī: a nun.^[7]

Word family

• ancillāris
• ancillula
• ancillāriolus
• ancillor

Related words

• ancillātus
• ancula
• anculus
• servus

Usage notes

Döderlein puts ancilla with servus, famulus and mancipium, words for a servant who is not free, as opposed to minister, one who serves but may be free, Pliny the Younger mentions ancillae who were called ministrae.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper