Etymologically
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bracchialis

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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]
  • 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