canicula

Forms

canīcula f (genitive canīculae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin canis (“dog”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] Priscian lists it among diminutives that do not keep the gender of their base.^[3] De Vaan traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *ḱuōn (“dog”).^[4] The sense dogfish is probably a calque of Ancient Greek σκύλιον (skúlion).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, of a woman who bites: apage istanc canīculam!, “away with that bitch!”^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short give the plain sense of a small dog or bitch from Pliny the Elder,^[5] but the earliest uses are figurative, of a snappish woman, in Plautus and later in Gellius.^[2][5]

From Varro on it named a dogfish or shark and the Dog Star, Sirius, sometimes the whole constellation Canis Major;^[2][4] Pliny the Elder applies it to Procyon, the lesser dog.^[2][5] Persius calls the lowest throw at dice the ruinous canīcula.^[2]

Through French chenille, “caterpillar”, literally “little dog”, it is the source of English chenille (1738).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a biting woman.^[2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for the dogfish and for the Dog Star.^[2][7]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a small dog and for Procyon.^[2][5][7]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it for the lowest throw at dice.^[2][7]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a quarrelsome woman.^[5][7]
• 1738 – English chenille comes from it through French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small dog or bitch.^[5]
2. (figurative) A bitch, a snappish or quarrelsome woman.^[2][5]
3. A dogfish or shark.^[2]
4. The Dog Star, Sirius; sometimes the constellation Canis Major.^[2][5]
5. Procyon, the lesser dog star.^[2][5]
6. The lowest throw at dice.^[2]

Word family

• canīculāris

Related words

• English chenille

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de