Etymologically
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clava

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkɫaː.wa][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈklaː.va][1]

Forms

clāva f (genitive clāvae); first declension[1]

Etymology

De Vaan derives it from the same basis as clāvus “nail” and clāvis “key”, from Proto-Italic *klāwo- (“closing, barring”), Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”), perhaps first an adjective “which closes off”, and the OLD also compares clāvus.[2][3] Wiktionary and the TLL derive it instead from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat, break”), as in clādēs “disaster” and percellō “to strike down”, perhaps from *cladva.[1][4][5] Isidore of Seville explained it as bound with iron nails, clāvī.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus, whose character orders two clubs to be brought.[7][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[7]

Semantic evolution

It meant a wooden club, stick or cudgel, as in Lucretius and Virgil, the club of Hercules, and a club used in physical exercise, as in Cicero.[3][5][8] Nepos uses it of the Spartan scytale, the staff round which messages were wound.[3] A fighter with a club was a clāvātor.[2]

In Medieval Latin it was a club, and a ceremonial mace carried by a sergeant-at-mace.[9][10] Italian, Spanish and Portuguese clava are borrowed from it.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[3][7]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.[5][7]
  • c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of the Spartan scytale.[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A club, cudgel.[3]
  2. The Spartan scytale.[3]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A ceremonial mace.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  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. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill