camella

Forms

camella f (genitive camellae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin camera (“vault, chamber”), a diminutive,^[2][3][4] with the /r/ of the base assimilated to /l/.^[1] camera is itself borrowed from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “anything with an arched cover, a vault”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in a fragment of Laberius quoted by Gellius,^[2][5][6] though Köbler dates it from Ovid.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It was a cup or bowl for drinking.^[2][5] Ovid has milk and boiled-down must drunk from a camella set out as if it were a mixing bowl,^[3] and Petronius uses it several times, of a large cup to be mixed, of an old cracked bowl mended with pitch, and of a cup of wine.^[3][5] Diocletian's Price Edict lists it,^[3] and an inscription from Pompeii mentions it.^[3]

The TLL connects it with Italian gamella.^[3]

Timeline

• 106–43 BC – Laberius uses it in a fragment quoted by Gellius.^[2][7]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a bowl of milk.^[3][7]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of wine cups and an old bowl.^[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cup or bowl for drinking, a goblet.^[2][5][8]

Related words

• camera

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 e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.