bucetum

Forms

būcētum n (genitive būcētī); second declension^[1] Also būcītum;^[2][3][1] Varro has the plural būcīta.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is formed on bōs (“ox, cow”), but how is not clear.^[4][5][6] The OLD and Wiktionary suggest it is from Latin bōs + -ētum (“place of”), with the ⟨c⟩ taken over by false analogy from words such as fruticētum (“thicket”), salicētum (“willow grove”) and senticētum (“thorn brake”), and the stem ⟨būc-⟩ from būcina (“horn”) and būculus (“young bull”).^[2][1] Others have proposed a compound of the same noun with Proto-Indo-European *kayt- (“forest, wasteland, pasture”), the root of Proto-Germanic *haiþī (“heath”); that would regularly give the variant ⟨būcītum⟩, the ⟨ē⟩ coming from reanalysis.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro is the first to use it, explaining the name of the Porta Mucionis on the Palatine from the lowing of cattle, quod ea pecus in būcēta tum ante antīquum oppidum exigēbant, “because they used then to drive the cattle out that way to the pastures before the old town”.^[7][6][2]

Semantic evolution

It remained a rare word for a cattle pasture.^[3] Lucan and Gellius use it, and Sidonius Apollinaris later has it in a letter.^[3][8] The glossaries explain būcēta as pastures.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in explaining the name of a gate of Rome.^[7][2][5]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan uses it.^[3][8][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it.^[3][8][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris has it in a letter.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pasture for cattle, a cow pasture.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• bōs
• būcina
• būculus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina (text of The Latin Library; book and paragraph numbers as there).
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier