cellula

Forms

cellula f (genitive cellulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cella (“storeroom, small room”) + -ula, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] The origin of the base is uncertain: de Vaan thinks it may preserve an older ⟨cēla⟩ beside cēlō (“to conceal”), or be a diminutive of the same root, and gives Proto-Indo-European *ḱēl- (“hiding”) with a question mark.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Terence has it first, for a slave's room:^[2][4] quom in cellulam ad tē patris penum omnem congerēbam clanculum, “when I secretly piled all my father's stores into your little room”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means a small room or cell: a slave's room, a mean or humble lodging, a porter's lodge, a prostitute's cubicle,^[2] and in Columella hollowed cells like pigeon-holes.^[2][5] The TLL notes the spelling ⟨cellola⟩ in late authors and inscriptions, such as a council at Orléans in 541 and Gregory of Tours.^[3]

In Christian and medieval Latin it was a monk's dwelling within a monastery, a small monastery, often so called out of humility, or the house of a group of monks;^[6] Gregory of Tours already calls a place cellula sānctī Maxentī, today's Saint-Maixent.^[3] In Church Latin it also means a hut.^[7] New Latin used it for the biological cell.^[1]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it for a slave's room.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of hollowed cells like pigeon-holes.^[2][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it for a porter's lodge.^[2][8]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for humble dwellings.^[2][8]
• 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours writes it ⟨cellola⟩ and names a monastery cellula.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small room, especially a slave's room.^[2][5]
2. A mean or humble dwelling.^[2]
3. A porter's lodge.^[2]
4. A prostitute's cubicle.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A monk's cell; a small monastery.^[6]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A hut.^[7]
7. (New Latin, biology) A cell.^[1]

Word family

• cellulanus

Related words

• cella

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de