coturnix

Forms

cō̆turnīx f (genitive cō̆turnīcis); third declension^[1] The first vowel is long in Plautus and Lucretius and short in Ovid, Martial and Juvenal.^[2][3] The archetype of Lucretius spells it cocturnīx.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[5][1] The OLD takes it to be originally imitative,^[2] and Köbler likewise calls it probably imitative of the bird's call;^[6] Festus, as epitomised by Paulus, already said the quail was named from the sound of its voice.^[2][3]

Some scholars take an older form with ⟨qu⟩ as the original and compare Old High German wahtala and Old English wyhtel, names of the quail.^[5] Wiktionary starts from an earlier ⟨cocturnīx⟩, perhaps from Proto-Italic *kwaktrīx, reshaped after cōrnīx (“crow”), and traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kʷóǵ⁽ʰ⁾-tr-ih₂-k-s, from *kʷeǵ⁽ʰ⁾- (“to flee”), with Proto-West Germanic *hwahtlā (“quail”) as a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, both for the bird, the quail, in the Captivi and as a pet name in the Asinaria.^[4][7][6]

Semantic evolution

Varro, Lucretius, Ovid and Pliny the Elder mention the bird.^[3][4] Like other small animal names it served as a term of endearment in comedy.^[2][7] The Vulgate uses it in Exodus,^[4] and Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the plain sense “quail”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for the quail and as a pet name.^[4][7][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro writes about quails in his work on farming.^[3][7][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius scans the first vowel long.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid scans it short, as later poets do.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the bird.^[3][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Exodus.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A quail.^[2][3]
2. (figurative) A pet name, “my little quail”.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson