Etymologically
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bubulus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈbuː.bʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈbuː.bu.lus][1]

Forms

būbulus (feminine būbula, neuter būbulum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Petronius has the syncopated bublum.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin bōs (“ox, cow”) + -ulus.[2][3] The formation is obscure: the base ⟨būb-⟩, also found in būbīle and Būbōna (“goddess of cattle”), has an unexpected second ⟨b⟩, and ⟨-ulus⟩ does not usually make adjectives from nouns.[1]

The word for “ox” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₃-u-s (“cow”); its initial ⟨b⟩ is not the regular Latin outcome of /gʷ/ and is generally taken from Sabellic.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius has it first,[4][5] in a comedy fragment, of an oxtail.[2]

Semantic evolution

Plautus jokes about ox-hide whips as exuviae bubulae and coria bubula, and about lashes as monumenta bubula.[2][6] Cato writes of cattle dung and of the plant lingua bubula, a kind of bugloss.[2][6] Later prose has cow's milk, beef, ox-hide wineskins and ox horn, especially in medicine.[2][6] The feminine was used as a noun for beef from Plautus on.[6][7] Suetonius places the birth of Augustus ad Capita Bubula, a district of Rome.[2]

In medieval British Latin Bede speaks of an ox-like gentleness.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of an oxtail.[2][4][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus jokes about ox-hide whips.[2][5]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of dung and of the plant lingua bubula.[2][5]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of cattle dung burnt for fuel.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of beef and ox-hide bags.[2][5]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius names the district Capita Bubula.[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of cattle; of an ox, bull or cow.[2][6]
  2. Made from part of a bovine animal; of oxhide;[2][6] exuviae bubulae, coria bubula, ox-hide whips (humorous).[2][6]
  3. In plant names: lingua bubula, a kind of bugloss;[2] cunila bubula, a kind of marjoram.[2]
  4. Capita Bubula, a district of Rome.[2]

Word family

  • būbula
  • būbulīnus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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 c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  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