clavo

Forms

clāvō (present infinitive clāvāre, perfect active clāvāvī, supine clāvātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin clāvus (“nail; purple stripe”).^[2][3][4] The noun goes back to Proto-Italic *klāwo- (“closing, barring”) and Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is rare and not found before the Augustan age, mostly in the perfect participle.^[2] The first instance is in Pliny the Elder, who describes a purple shell as furnished with prickles right up to its tip.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Paulinus of Nola uses it of fastening timbers with nails.^[4][6] The participle also meant furnished with a purple stripe: Lewis & Short cite napkins striped with scarlet and a tunic striped with gold from Lampridius and Vopiscus.^[2] Glossaries render it as making nails.^[4]

In Medieval Latin it meant to nail shut, and its participle clāvātus was used of things strengthened with iron clamps, studded, fitted with little hooks, or trimmed with a coloured border.^[7]

Timeline

• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the participle of a prickly purple shell.^[3][2][8]
• c. 353–431 AD – Paulinus of Nola uses it of fastening with nails.^[4][9][8]
• 1227 – A document in the Acta imperii says that a chest was nailed shut.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To nail, to fasten or furnish with nails.^[2][4][9]
2. (participle) Furnished with points or prickles.^[2]
3. To furnish with a purple stripe.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) To nail shut.^[7]

Word family

• clāvātus

Related words

• clāvus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier