columba

Forms

columba f (genitive columbae, masculine columbus); first declension^[1] The masculine is columbus.^[1][2] Varro notes that formerly both males and females were called columbae.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][4] De Vaan compares the Balto-Slavic words for “blue” and “dove”, as Old Prussian golimban (“blue”), Old Church Slavonic голѫбь (golǫbĭ, “pigeon, dove”) and Russian го́лубь (gólubʹ, “pigeon”), which point to ⟨*ge/ol-o/embi/o-⟩ “blue”, hence “dove”; if ⟨columba⟩ belongs with them, an irregular alternation in the first consonant must be assumed.^[2] The OLD and the TLL compare Ancient Greek κόλυμβος (kólumbos, “small diving bird”), and Wiktionary derives it from that Greek word.^[4][3][1] Varro derived the name from the birds' cry, and also from columen (“gable”), where they nest;^[3] Isidore from the changing colours of their necks.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[2] whose Asinaria has girls who opened their mouths like dove chicks whenever they were given something.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is the pigeon or dove, kept in towers and on farm buildings.^[4][3] It is the bird of Venus, a symbol of love, as in Martial's kisses imitating coaxing doves, and the type of gentleness, contrasted with eagles: Horace says fierce eagles do not breed the unwarlike dove.^[4] Plautus already uses it as an endearment, “call me your duckling, your dove”.^[4][1]

In the early Church the word also named a dove-shaped vessel for the Eucharist.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of dove chicks and as an endearment.^[4][2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro on keeping pigeons.^[3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the gentle dove.^[4][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore explains the name from the birds' necks.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pigeon, dove; the bird of Venus; a type of gentleness.^[4][7][1][5]
2. A term of endearment, “dove”.^[4][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A dove-shaped vessel for the Eucharist.^[5]

Word family

• columbāre
• columbārius
• columbatim
• columbīnus
• columbor
• columbula

Related words

• columbārium
• columbus
• palumbus
• palumbēs
• English columbine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press