anicula

Forms

anicula f (genitive aniculae); first declension^[1] A syncopated anicla occurs in Prudentius.^[2] The Appendix Probi rejects the Vulgar form anucla: anus non anucla.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin anus² (“old woman”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[5][2][4] De Vaan traces anus to Proto-Italic *anu- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂enH-o- (“old woman”), perhaps a nursery word.^[6] Cognate with Hittite hanna-, Old Prussian ane (“old mother”), Lithuanian anýta (“mother-in-law”) and Old High German ana (“grandmother”).^[6] Varro gives ⟨anicula⟩ and ⟨anicilla⟩ as the diminutives of ⟨anus⟩.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Terence,^[6][7] who writes that no one well-disposed was with someone except unam aniculam, “a single little old woman”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a little old woman or simply an old woman.^[2][5] Cicero says that even old women do not believe something, and calls tales hardly worth the lamplight of old women.^[2] Seneca and Petronius also use it.^[2][8] In medieval Britain, Aldhelm tells of a very decrepit old woman seen in a vision, and an Old English gloss renders it eald cwene.^[9]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the Phormio and the Andria.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of credulous old women.^[2][7]
• 348/49–c. 413 AD – Prudentius has the syncopated anicla.^[2][7]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it in a vision story.^[9][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A little old woman; an old woman.^[5][2][1]

Word family

• anicilla
• aniculāris

Related words

• anus²

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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