bucinum

Forms

būcinum n (genitive būcinī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin būcina (“herdsman's horn, trumpet”).^[2][3] De Vaan lists the base among the derivatives of bōs “cow”,^[4] and Wiktionary analyses it as that word with canō (“to sing”).^[1] The shellfish is named after its shape: Pliny the Elder describes it as a smaller shell resembling the one on which the trumpet call is blown.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Pliny the Elder,^[6] who uses it of a trumpet call and of a kind of shellfish.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses the word for the blast of a trumpet,^[2][3] and for a sea snail found clinging to rocks, whose juice was used in dyeing purple.^[3][5] Caelius Aurelianus names bucina among shellfish.^[5] In the jurists it also names a place in Rome, ad Bucinum,^[2][3] and the TLL records a quarter called Aureum bucinum in the regionary catalogue of the city.^[5] L&S give the spelling buccinum beside it.^[3]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a trumpet call and of a purple-yielding shellfish.^[2][3][6]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian, quoted in the Digest, mentions a shop “ad bucinum”.^[2][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus names the shellfish.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blast on a trumpet, a trumpet call.^[2][3]
2. A kind of shellfish used in dyeing purple, or the dye made from it.^[2][3]
3. (in place names) ad Bucinum, a quarter of Rome.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de