collum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkɔl.lũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔl.lum]^[1]

Forms

collum n (genitive collī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain, but Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *kʷolsom, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷolso- (“neck”), literally “that on which the head turns”, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”).^[1] Georges also starts from *colso-.^[2]

Compare Old English heals and Old High German hals (“neck”).^[3][2][1] Before Varro the word was mostly masculine, collus.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius asks whether the shoulders or the neck have more calluses, using the masculine collus.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It meant the neck of people and animals, also as the source of the voice, as Virgil's swans singing through their necks, the head and neck together, and a severed head.^[3] It was used of the upper stem of a flower, as Virgil's poppies hanging their heads on weary necks, of a mountain ridge, as Statius' Parnassus, and of the neck of a vessel, as Cato's amphora with a broken neck.^[3]

Phrases include invadere alicui in collum, to fall on someone's neck, in Cicero, and torquere collum, to drag someone off by the throat, in Livy.^[5] Quintilian refuses to follow Calvus in using the plural collos.^[4] Isidore explained it as stiff and round like a column, bearing the head.^[6] In medieval Latin it also meant a mountain pass.^[7] English collar comes from its derivative collāre.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses the masculine collus.^[3][9]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a neck without a collar.^[3][9]
• 234–149 BC – Cato writes of an amphora with a broken neck.^[3][9]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of poppies and of swans.^[3][9]
• c. 1300 – English collar comes from its derivative collāre.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The neck (of people and animals).^[3][1]
2. The neck as the source of the voice.^[3]
3. The head and neck; a severed head.^[3]
4. The neck of a plant's stem.^[3][1]
5. A mountain ridge.^[3][1]
6. The neck of a vessel, a bottleneck.^[3][1]
7. (Medieval Latin) A mountain pass.^[7]

Word family

• succollō

Related words

• English collar

Usage notes

The neck appears as a symbol of servitude in phrases like subdere colla fortunae, “to bow one's neck to fortune”.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de