Etymologically
Log in

catellus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kaˈtɛl.lʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kaˈtɛl.lus][1]

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