Etymologically
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aphye

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈa.pʰy.eː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈaː.fi.e][1]

Forms

aphyē f (genitive aphyēs); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀφύη (aphúē, “small fry”).[2][1][3] Köbler, following Frisk, notes that the further origin of the Greek word is unexplained.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Pliny the Elder, who sets it beside the native name of a tiny fish: apuam nostrī, aphyēn Graecī vocant, quoniam is pisciculus ē pluviā nāscātur, “our people call it apua, the Greeks aphye, because this little fish is born from rain”.[2][4] The OLD notes that Pliny treated it as a species of its own.[2]

Semantic evolution

Pliny lists it again among the fish peculiar to the sea.[4][2] Georges records apua, -ae as a late by-form, used in the cookery book of Apicius,[5] and a Festus excerpt explains apua as a kind of very small fish.[4] The dictionaries identify the fish differently: Georges with the smelt, VoLat with the anchovy, and Wiktionary with small fry and the anchovy in particular.[5][6][1]

In Medieval Latin Albertus Magnus has it in his work on animals, as the name of a kind of sardine.[7]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a small sea fish.[2][3]
  • 4th century AD – Apicius uses the by-form apua.[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small sea fish; small fry, perhaps the anchovy or a kind of smelt.[2][5][6][1]

Usage notes

Pliny equates it with apua, the Latin name of the same fish.[4][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
  7. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften