calcar

Forms

calcar n (genitive calcāris); third declension^[1] Köbler also records the form carcar.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin calx (“heel”), as the TLL and the OLD connect it, and Priscian derives it from that noun.^[3][4][1] De Vaan calls the origin of calx unclear: a link with Lithuanian kulkšnìs (“ankle”) is doubtful at best, and some think it non-Indo-European, perhaps Etruscan.^[5] Isidore explains that spurs are so called because they are tied to a man's heel to urge on horses.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[2] In the OLD's earliest quotation Plautus threatens to drive someone up a slope with a four-footed spur.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a spur worn on the heel, and Lewis & Short note that it is frequent in figurative use.^[6][4] Phrases are ⟨calcar admovēre⟩, to apply the spur, as of a wind in Varro, and ⟨addere calcāria sponte currentī⟩, to spur a willing horse.^[4] Columella uses it of the spur of a cock.^[4] Niermeyer records the ram of a warship as a medieval sense.^[7] Church Latin glosses it spur.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a four-footed spur.^[4][2]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a wind applying the spur.^[4][2]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a cock's spurs.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spur; figuratively, a stimulus, incentive.^[4][6][1][8]
2. The spur of a cock.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin) The ram of a warship.^[7]

Related words

• calx
• calcō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson