assula

Forms

assula f (genitive assulae); first declension^[1] Also spelled astula, which many manuscripts have,^[2][3] and hastula.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin assis (“plank, board”), of which it is a diminutive; that word is also spelled ⟨axis⟩.^[5][3][2] The OLD calls the origin doubtful and compares ⟨astula⟩.^[6] Köbler calls it of uncertain origin, perhaps from asser (“beam”).^[7] The TLL explains ⟨astula⟩ either as a mixing of ⟨assula⟩ and ⟨hastula⟩ or as a spoken form, in which ⟨assula⟩ lost its middle vowel and a ⟨t⟩ was inserted.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has a character threaten to make splinters of a door, in the Mercator.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant a splinter or chip of wood, and Vitruvius used it for the chips of marble that masons knock off their work.^[6][2][4] Bibaculus, quoted by Suetonius, used it for a shingle.^[2] Pliny the Elder says that something called melandrya looks like chips of oak.^[6][2]

Wiktionary lists the Late Latin form astla as its descendant,^[1] and Köbler cites an early Romance ⟨*astella⟩ and Old French astele.^[7] Medieval glossaries render it with Old High German words for a chip or splinter.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Mercator.^[6][7]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for chips of marble.^[6][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of oak chips.^[6][7]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius quotes Bibaculus using it for a shingle.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A splinter, chip, shaving of wood.^[6][2]
2. A chip of marble or stone.^[6][4]
3. A shingle.^[2]

Word family

• assulātim
• assulōsē

Related words

• asser

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de