Etymologically
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benna

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Forms

benna f (genitive bennae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Gaulish benna: Festus calls it a Gaulish word for a kind of vehicle.[2][3][4][1][5] Köbler compares Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind”).[5]

It survives in Italian benna and French banne and benne.[2][1] Lewis & Short and Georges note that a wicker cart was still called banne in Belgium and benne in Switzerland.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only ancient record is in Festus (in Paul the Deacon's epitome), who says that benna is Gaulish for a kind of vehicle, and that those who sat in the same benna were called combennōnēs.[2][6][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Georges takes it to be a two-wheeled cart with a wicker body.[4] In medieval Latin it names a container or basket: Hincmar's life of Saint Remigius tells how bread and meat were placed in a vessel “commonly called a benna”.[7][8] It was also a measure, of spelt in a charter of Saint-Bertin[7] and of dry goods in a Savoy survey of 1309.[8] Köbler records it as a measure of grain in 1206.[5]

Timeline

  • 8th century AD – Paul the Deacon's epitome of Festus records it as a Gaulish word for a vehicle.[5][2]
  • 1206 – It is used of a measure of grain.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kind of cart, probably a two-wheeled one with a wicker body.[6][3][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A basket, container.[7][8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A measure of grain.[7][8][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre