corculum

Forms

corculum n (genitive corculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the diminutive from Latin cor (“heart”) + -culum.^[2][3] De Vaan notes that it was formed on the old consonant stem of cor, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱērd (“heart”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[4][5] in the Casina, of the heart as the seat of feeling and as a term of endearment.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Besides a little heart, it was a pet name, “sweetheart”.^[2][6] It also meant a wise or shrewd person: Festus reports that the ancients called such a person corculum, from cor,^[2] and it was the nickname of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, consul in 155 BC.^[2][6] Pliny the Elder uses Corculi as a type of wise men.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the heart and as a term of endearment.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero reports that Scipio Nasica was called Corculum, noting that some held the heart itself to be the mind.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the plural Corculi for wise men.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of the heart of a fish.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A little heart, especially as the seat of the feelings.^[2][6]
2. (term of endearment) Sweetheart.^[2][6]
3. A wise or shrewd person; a nickname of Scipio Nasica.^[2]

Related words

• cor

Usage notes

In the Casina Plautus strings it together with other endearments: meum corculum, melculum, verculum (“my little heart, my little honey, my little spring”).^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press