Etymologically
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buculus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈbuː.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈbuː.ku.lus][1]

Forms

būculus m (genitive būculī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin bōs (“ox, cow”) + -culus, a diminutive.[2][1][3] The feminine būcula “heifer” is older and more frequent.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Columella, in his book on farming, tells how to lead young bullocks to the stall once caught.[3][2] Köbler dates Columella to the 1st century AD.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was a young ox or bull, a steer, in Columella and in Frontinus' Stratagems, where bullocks are tied to trees.[2][4][3] Georges specifies a young bull kept for breeding.[6] A Greek–Latin glossary renders it with a Greek word for a calf.[3]

In medieval Latin Hrabanus Maurus uses it of an ox-herd, perhaps by confusion with Greek Ancient Greek βουκόλος (boukólos).[7] Through Old French bugle “wild ox; horn” it is the source of English bugle, recorded in the mid-14th century, short for buglehorn, a horn made from an ox's horn.[8][1]

Timeline

  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of young bullocks.[2][5]
  • 1st half of 9th century – Hrabanus Maurus uses it.[5][7]
  • mid-14th century – English bugle is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A young bullock, a steer.[2][4]
  2. (Medieval Latin) An ox-herd.[7]

Word family

  • būcula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com