clanculum

Forms

clanculum (adverb and preposition)^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin clam (“secretly”) + -culum, a diminutive formed directly on the adverb, as plūsculum on ⟨plūs⟩.^[3][2] De Vaan traces clam to Proto-Italic *klām and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *ḱl-eh2- (“concealment”), but finds its Indo-European origin less clear.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD record it from Plautus,^[3][2] as in the Amphitruo: clanculum abii, “I slipped away secretly”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it ante-classical but frequent:^[4] Plautus and Terence use it often, Lucilius of goods carried out of a harbour secretly, and the Bellum Hispaniense once.^[2] Terence also has it once as a preposition with the accusative, clanculum patres, without the fathers' knowledge.^[2][4] Late prose also has it, for example Hegesippus, where Nero withdraws secretly to a suburban estate.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “secretly”.^[2][3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence, as a preposition, “without the knowledge of”.^[2][6]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, of goods carried out of a harbour.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Secretly, privately, by stealth.^[2][4][1]

Preposition

1. With the accusative: without the knowledge of.^[2][4][1]

Word family

• clanculārius

Related words

• clandestīnus

Usage notes

Döderlein groups it with clam as “secretly” in contrast to palam, openly, while occultē stands against apertē.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper