costatus

Forms

costātus (feminine costāta, neuter costātum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin costa (“rib, side”) + -ātus (“provided with”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan treats the base as an isolated word of unknown origin, going back to Proto-Italic *ko(n/r)stā-; he considers a link with Slavic “bone” unlikely.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, writing on farming, wants oxen to be corpore bene costato, “well-ribbed in body”, with broad shoulders and good haunches.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is a rare word, known only from Varro's description of cattle.^[5][7] Medieval Latin used it more widely: Albertus Magnus says that fish are ribbed as far as behind the belly, and Theophilus' Schedula describes handles either round or costata, angular.^[8] As a noun it named a cut of meat from the ribs, in a charter of 1215,^[8][6] and the breast or chest, the part of the body where the ribs are.^[9][10]

Its Romance descendants include Italian costato, French côté and Spanish costado, and English has the learned costate.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of oxen with a well-ribbed body.^[3][6]
• c. 1100 – Theophilus uses it of angular handles.^[8][6]
• 1215 – A Tyrolean charter uses the noun for rib pieces of meat.^[8][6]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus uses it of ribbed fish.^[8][6]
• 1348 – The Este chronicle records a man wounded in the costatus, the side.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having ribs, ribbed; of animals, well-ribbed, sturdy.^[2][5][11]
2. (Medieval Latin) Angular, having edges.^[8]

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A rib piece of meat.^[8]
2. (Medieval Latin) The chest or thorax, the part of the body where the ribs are.^[9][10]

Related words

• costa
• English costate

Usage notes

A separate, rare costātus “flavoured with costus”, from costum, appears in a Pseudo-Gargilian recipe for wine made with costus^[3][12] and in Constantine the African.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
11. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
12. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.