cloppus

Forms

cloppus (feminine cloppa, neuter cloppum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Wiktionary takes it as probably imitative of the sound of limping.^[1] Diez thought it an altered form of Ancient Greek χωλόπους (khōlópous, “lame-footed”), an idea the TLL reports^[2] and Du Cange attributes to Martinius;^[4] Köbler suspects that it is no more than a corrupt form.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a word of the late glossaries and early medieval texts:^[2][3] the Tironian notes list Cloppus as a personal name,^[2][3] and the glossaries render it with Greek χωλός (khōlós, “lame”).^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The glossaries also set it beside lordus and pandus “bent”, for Greek λορδός (lordós).^[5][2] In early medieval law and administration it meant lame:^[6][7] one manuscript of the Lex Alamannorum has it where the others have claudus, for a man left lame by a blow to the knee,^[8][4] and a Frankish capitulary on royal estates asks for lame oxen, not sickly ones.^[8][4]

It survived in Romance: Old French and Old Occitan clop, Italian zoppo and Sardinian ciopu, and Middle Welsh borrowed it as cloff.^[1] Du Cange derives the French verb clopiner “to limp” from it.^[4]

Timeline

• 500–9th century – The Tironian notes list it as a personal name.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) Lame, limping.^[6][8][1]

Related words

• claudus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
5. ^ a b Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Liber exquisiti xenii: Lexikon frühmittelalterlicher Rechtswörter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften