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botellus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word botellus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
40–103 Martial More words from the 1st century
Ultimate origin
Latin botulus
From the same root
English bowel ← botellus

Forms

botellus m (genitive botellī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from Latin botulus (“black pudding, sausage”).[2][3][4] The OLD takes botulus to be probably a borrowing from Oscan or Umbrian, comparing Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌸𐌿𐍃 (qiþus).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Martial is the first to use it, for a small sausage.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical and Late Latin it is a small sausage, found in Martial, in the cookery book of Apicius and in Sidonius.[4][6][3] In Medieval Latin it came to mean the gut or bowel itself;[7][8] the TLL lists Italian budello and French boyau among its descendants.[3][5] English bowel comes through Old French from this medieval sense.[9]

Timeline

  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it for a small sausage.[2][10]
  • 4th century AD – Apicius gives a recipe for it.[4][3][10]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it in a poem in his letters.[3][10]
  • c. 800 – The Lex Frisionum has it in the medieval sense of gut.[10]
  • c. 1300 – English bowel is recorded, from its Old French descendant.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small sausage.[2][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A bowel, gut.[7][8]

Usage notes

Niermeyer also lists a separate medieval botellus as a form of butticula.[7][10]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Botellus.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/botellus. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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