antlia

Forms

antlia f (genitive antliae); first declension^[1] Medieval spellings include anthlia, antla and ancla.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀντλία (antlía),^[4][5][1] which in Greek meant bilge-water or the hold of a ship;^[6] Georges gives the source as ἀντλίον (antlíon).^[7] The Greek words are derivatives of ἄντλος (ántlos, “bilge-water”), whose origin Beekes leaves open;^[6] the related verb ἀντλέω (antléō) meant to bale out bilge-water or to pump.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Martial has the first record, of a curved device that lifts water up with toil.^[7][8][3]

Semantic evolution

In Latin it named a machine for raising water, a pump or water wheel.^[4][8][7] Suetonius tells of a man condemned to the antlia, which the OLD takes as the treadmill imposed on prisoners.^[4][9]

Medieval glosses explain it as a wheel that draws water from a cistern, and Aldhelm used it in that sense;^[10][2] Old High German glosses render it with words for a well sweep or water wheel.^[3][2] In zoology it names the mouthparts with which an insect sucks up plant juices.^[1]

Timeline

• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of a pump that raises water.^[7][3]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius tells of a man condemned to the antlia.^[4][8]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of a water wheel drawing water from a cistern.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine for raising water; a pump or water wheel.^[4][8]
2. (as a punishment) The treadmill.^[4][9]
3. (zoology) The proboscis of an insect.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ 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