caespes

Forms

caespes m (genitive caespitis); third declension^[1] Statius and Apuleius have the spelling cespes.^[2]

Etymology

The etymology is unknown.^[3][4] De Vaan suggests that its first meaning was “a piece cut off”, and a link with caedō (“to cut”) has often been proposed.^[3][2][5][1] The OLD compares Oscan kaispatar (“let it be cut”), but de Vaan finds that form too uncertain in form and meaning to use; the TLL also mentions a comparison with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃 (haifsts, “strife”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cicero,^[3][6] who argues that sods and clods are not weapons.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a sod or turf cut from the ground, and turf as a building material, as Virgil's roof of a poor hut heaped with turf;^[2][5] Festus defines it as earth cut like a brick with its grass.^[2][5] It also means the grassy top layer of the soil, earth, and contemptuously a spadeful of earth.^[2] Turf was used for ramparts and altars, and for the mound over a grave.^[2] Ovid uses it of grass, and Pliny the Elder of a knot on the bark of a vine.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “turf, sod”.^[7] In Medieval Latin a sod of turf was the token handed over in the act of seisin, and the word also meant a piece of land, a region or territory.^[8]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of sods and clods.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of a turf roof.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a turf rampart.^[2][6]
• Medieval Latin – a sod used in investiture; a piece of land.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sod or turf cut from the ground; turf as building material.^[2][5][1][7]
2. Grassy ground; earth, soil.^[2][1]
3. A turf rampart; a turf altar; a grave mound.^[2]
4. Grass; a knot on a vine's bark.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A sod used as a token of seisin; a piece of land; a region.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill