castula

Forms

castula f (genitive castulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[1] It may be a diminutive from Ancient Greek κασᾶς (kasâs, “horse blanket”): so Georges,^[2] while Köbler takes it from the Greek word and calls that an oriental loanword.^[3] Wiktionary suggests instead that it may come from castus (“chaste”),^[1] and a Polish medieval dictionary, for the sense “bath towel”, also asks whether it is a diminutive of that adjective.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only classical source is Varro's work on the life of the Roman people, quoted by Nonius, where it is a garment of women.^[5][2][6][3] Nonius explains it as a woman's girdle.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Humanist writers revived it from Nonius.^[8] Niccolò Perotti describes it as a small cloak with which naked girls were girt below the breasts, and Ravisius Textor repeats him;^[8] Erythraeus gives a leather castula to a man among the common people, and Pexenfelder pairs it with the apron.^[8] Dasypodius glosses it in German as a bathing apron or women's apron,^[8] and a Polish glossary renders it as a bath towel.^[4]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a garment of women.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A garment of women, a kind of petticoat or bodice.^[5][2][6][1]
2. (New Latin) A girdle or apron; a bath towel.^[8][4]

Usage notes

Du Cange records medieval castula for a splinter of wood, from assula, in a life of Saint Maiolus, and for a channel or gutter in a Provençal glossary.^[7] As a name, Castula is also a star in Cassiopeia.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
8. ^ a b c d e Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de