Etymologically
Log in

camella

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 20:19. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kaˈmɛl.la][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kaˈmɛl.la][1]

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]

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.