Etymologically
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collum

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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
  • 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