Etymologically
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catulus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈka.tʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkaː.tu.lus][1]

Forms

catulus m (genitive catulī, feminine catula); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kat-elo-, which also gave Umbrian katel, the name of a certain sacrificial animal.[2][3] De Vaan notes words of a similar shape in Germanic and Slavic, such as Middle High German hatele (“goat”), Old Norse haðna (“young goat”) and Serbo-Croatian kȏt (“litter, breed”), but thinks an Indo-European origin unlikely, since the Slavic forms do not fit the vowel and the meanings do not match well.[2] The OLD compares Middle Irish cadla (“goat”) with a “perhaps”.[3] Lewis & Short took it as a diminutive of catus.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Asinaria, where a new lover fawns even on the puppy of the house.[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is first a puppy or young dog, and Horace uses it of hunting dogs of any age.[3] It is also the young of other animals: Plautus has a sow trampling her young, Lucretius a panther's cub, Virgil and Horace lion cubs, and Pliny the Elder even young dolphins.[3][4] Lucilius uses it of a kind of iron fetter, as does Festus; according to Szemerényi this sense is a calque on Ancient Greek σκύλαξ (skúlax, “puppy; iron neck-chain”).[2][3] Church Latin glosses it cub or whelp.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a puppy and of a sow's young.[3][5]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a fetter worn with manacles and a collar.[3][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of young dolphins.[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A young dog, puppy, whelp; also a dog of any age.[3][4][1]
  2. The young of other animals, a cub.[3][4][6][1]
  3. A kind of iron fetter.[3][2][1]

Word family

  • catulārius
  • catulīnus
  • catuliō
  • catellus
  • catulaster

Usage notes

Catulus was also a cognomen of the gens Lutatia, borne by Gaius Lutatius Catulus, consul in 242 BC, and by two Quintus Lutatii Catuli, consuls in 102 and 78 BC; the second gave his name to the first book of Cicero's Academica.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson