bracchialis

Forms

bracchiālis (neuter bracchiāle); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Also spelled brāchiālis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin bracchium + -ālis, “of the arm”.^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Plautus' Poenulus, in the phrase nervom bracchialem, “the sinew of the arm”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin the adjective meant “of or belonging to the arm”;^[2][3] Pliny the Elder speaks of a root as thick as an arm.^[3][4] Its neuter, bracchiāle, was used as a noun for an arm ornament, a bracelet, already in Pliny.^[3][5] In the 5th century Sedulius writes of “rowing with the arms”.^[4][6]

British Medieval Latin used the noun for a sleeve, an arm-ring and an arm-guard (a bracer), and the adjective for a sheaf of the size a man can carry under his arm.^[7] English took brachial from it in the 1570s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of the sinew of the arm.^[4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the adjective of thickness and the neuter noun for a bracelet.^[3][4][6]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Sedulius writes of rowing with the arms.^[4][6]
• 1234 – A Glastonbury custumal measures sheaves by what can be carried under the arm.^[7]
• 1570s – English borrows it as brachial.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the arm or arms.^[2][3][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) Suited to the arm, of a size that can be carried under the arm.^[7]

Noun

1. (as neuter bracchiāle) A bracelet or arm-ring.^[3][5][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) A sleeve.^[7]
3. (Medieval Latin) An arm-guard, a bracer.^[7]

Related words

• English brachial

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e f 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com