catellus

Forms

catellus m (genitive catellī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin catulus (“whelp, puppy”) + -lus, a diminutive.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *kat-elo-; catulus is cognate with Umbrian katel, the name of a sacrificial animal, but he thinks an Indo-European origin unlikely.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[4][5] who uses it of a puppy in the Stichus and as a term of endearment in the Asinaria, where a lover asks to be called a duckling, a dove or a puppy.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides a small or young dog, it was a pet name, as again in Horace.^[2][7] Valerius Maximus tells of a little dog that had been a girl's pet.^[7] In the Curculio Plautus puns on it and on the diminutive of catēna, “a little chain”.^[7][6]

It remained in use in the early medieval law codes, such as the Alamannic law, and in the capitularies.^[8][5] In British sources it is a puppy, also figuratively for the “dogs” of Matthew 15:27, and in glossaries a kitten or a young weasel.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a puppy and as a term of endearment.^[2][6][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it as a pet name.^[2][7][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it.^[10][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small or young dog, a puppy, whelp.^[2][10][11]
2. A term of endearment.^[2][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A kitten; a young weasel.^[9]

Word family

• catellulus

Usage notes

Lewis & Short record a masculine catellus “small chain”, the diminutive of catēna, only in the pun in Plautus' Curculio; the usual word for that is the feminine catella².^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson