cochlea

Forms

cochlea f (genitive cochleae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled coclea, and coc(h)lia is found as well;^[2][1] Varro has the accusative coc(h)liam.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κοχλίας (kokhlías, “snail with a spiral shell”),^[2][3][4][1] which is formed from κόχλος (kókhlos, “shellfish with a spiral shell”).^[1][5] Etymonline notes that the Greek word is perhaps related to κόγχος (kónkhos, “mussel”),^[5] and Köbler compares Proto-Indo-European *ḱonkʰo- (“mussel”).^[4]

According to Charisius, Varro gave it as an example of Greek masculine nouns that become feminine in Latin and end in ⟨-a⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[4] meaning a snail: in the Poenulus a character tells others they have beaten a snail for slowness, vicistis cochleam tarditudine.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Snails appear among the ingredients of one of Cato's recipes, beside bees and dormice in Varro, and on a dinner menu in Pliny the Younger.^[2] The word also named the snail's shell, and its shape gave the sense of a spiral: Celsus uses it of a bandage wound spirally, and Columella of hollows twisted into a spiral.^[2]

In engineering Vitruvius uses it for the screw that works a press and for the water screw that lifts water,^[2] and Varro for a kind of entrance to an aviary, perhaps a winding or revolving door.^[2][1] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a screw, a spiral or a snail,^[6] and in medieval Latin a winding staircase, a winding lane, or an apse.^[7] English took it over in the 1680s for the spiral cavity of the inner ear.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the snail as a byword for slowness.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato lists snails in a recipe.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the press screw and the water screw.^[2][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a spiral.^[2][4]
• 1680s – Borrowed into English as cochlea for part of the inner ear.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A snail.^[2][8]
2. A snail shell.^[2]
3. A spiral.^[2][1]
4. A screw for working a press.^[2][1]
5. A water screw, Archimedes' screw.^[2][1]
6. A kind of winding or revolving entrance.^[2][1]
7. (Medieval Latin) A winding staircase; a winding lane; an apse.^[7]

Word family

• cochleārium
• cochlear

Related words

• English cochlea

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press