Etymologically
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conchylium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɔŋˈkʰyː.li.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [koŋˈkiː.li.um][1]

Forms

conchȳlium n (genitive conchȳliī or conchȳlī); second declension[1] Celsus has conculium.[2] Manuscripts often confuse conchyl- and conc(h)il-.[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κογχύλιον (konkhúlion, “small mussel”),[2][4][1][3] from κόγχη (kónkhē, “mussel”).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Lucretius,[5] who has the colour of the purple shellfish.[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a mollusc or shellfish, and especially the oyster: Cicero describes a table piled not with shellfish or fish but with half-rotten meat.[2][4] In particular it is the purple-fish; it also means the purple dye and purple cloth made from it: Catullus has purple dyed with the rosy dye of the shellfish, and Cicero speaks of things dyed with nothing but purple.[2][4] Pliny the Elder uses the plural of purple garments, and gives it as a name of the plant iasine.[2] Isidore of Seville says the murex is a sea snail also called conchylium, which when cut gives tears of purple colour.[3] English cockle (early 14th century) comes, through Old French coquille, from a Vulgar Latin *conchilia from this word.[6]

Timeline

  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius of purple colour.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of shellfish and of purple dye.[2]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of the purple-fish.[2]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville of the murex.[3]
  • early 14th century – English cockle.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shellfish, mollusc; an oyster.[2][4][1]
  2. The purple-fish; purple dye; cloth dyed purple, (plural) purple garments.[2][4][1]
  3. A name of the plant iasine.[2]

Word family

  • conchȳliātus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com