arvina

Forms

arvīna f (genitive arvīnae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *arow-i- (“entrails?”), and notes that haruspex “diviner from entrails” may share a base *aru-, if either its /h/ is hypercorrect or this word lost an earlier /h/.^[2] The Greek comedy title Ancient Greek ὀρύα (orúa, “sausage”) might attest a Sicilian form of the same word.^[2][1] Ancient Greek ἀρβίννη (arbínnē, “meat”), which Hesychius ascribes to the Sicels and the OLD and TLL compare, is probably borrowed from Latin or another Italic language.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[2][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant fat, lard, grease, as in Virgil's armourers who rub shields with rich fat, and Pliny the Elder.^[3][6] Servius, citing Suetonius, explains it as the hard fat between skin and flesh, and Isidore of Seville as the fat that clings to the skin.^[7][8] In Ecclesiastical Latin it was the fat of a sacrificial victim, as in the Vulgate.^[7] Arvīna was also a Roman cognomen in Livy.^[6]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense fat, grease, and figuratively grossness.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of fat for greasing shields.^[7][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of sacrificial fat.^[7][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines it.^[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fat, lard, grease.^[3][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The fat of a sacrificial victim.^[7]

Related words

• haruspex

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ 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