broccus

Forms

broccus (feminine brocca, neuter broccum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] The OLD and the TLL head it brocchus;^[2][3] the manuscripts also have brochus, broncus and bronchus.^[4][5][2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3] The OLD calls it probably Celtic,^[2] and Wiktionary suggests that it is borrowed from Gaulish *brokkos, from Proto-Celtic *brokkos (“badger”).^[1]

It survives in Italian brocco and French broche.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in a fragment of the Sitellitergus quoted by Festus, in a list of defects: aut vārum aut valgum aut compernem aut paetum aut brocchum fīlium, “a son bow-legged or knock-kneed or with knees knocking or squinting or buck-toothed”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Lucilius has broccus of a person with a prominent tooth,^[3][2] and Varro uses it of horses' and dogs' teeth that stick out.^[3][4] Nonius explains brocci as people with a jutting mouth and prominent teeth, and the glossaries as people with a swollen upper lip.^[3][6] Pliny the Elder says that the cognomen Brocchus came from the lips, like Labeō;^[2][4] it was a surname of the Furii and Annaei.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a buck-toothed son.^[3][7]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius has the spelling broccus.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of horses' and dogs' teeth.^[3][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder explains the cognomen Brocchus.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of teeth) projecting, prominent.^[2][4][5]
2. (of persons and animals) Having projecting teeth, buck-toothed; having a jutting mouth or thick upper lip.^[2][4][6]

Usage notes

In medieval British sources broccus is also a badger, from Old English broc, in a record of 1279;^[8][7] Köbler also lists a broccus “saddlebag, pannier” of 1252, of unknown origin.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ 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