cotyla

Forms

cotyla f (genitive cotylae); first declension^[1] The classical dictionaries mostly head it cotula;^[2][3][4] cotila, cotilla and the Greek form cotyle also occur.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κοτύλη (kotúlē, “small cup; a liquid measure”).^[3][5][1] In Greek the word is found from the Iliad on for a bowl or small cup, a measure of liquid, and the socket of the hip joint.^[6]

Beekes compares catīnus (“(flat) dish”), and takes the differences of vowel and formation to mean that Greek and Latin borrowed their words separately from a third language.^[6] Isidore of Seville explained the name from a Greek word for cutting, because the measure divides the sextarius into two equal halves.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato (234–149 BC) uses it as a measure of capacity in his work on agriculture.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

As a measure it held six cyathi, half a sextarius, and was the same as the hēmīna.^[3][4] Martial uses it for a small cup,^[3][9] and the late veterinary writers Pelagonius and Vegetius as a measure.^[4][2]

In Medieval Latin it remained the name of a liquid measure and a cup,^[11][12] and was also used of a weight.^[12] New Latin anatomy used it for the socket of the hip.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it as a liquid measure.^[2][9][10]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it for a small cup.^[3][9][10]
• 360 AD – Pelagonius uses it as a measure in veterinary prescriptions.^[2][10]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines it as a measure of six cyathi.^[7][10]
• 1274 – An account from Canterbury records small vessels (cottulae) bought with casks of wine.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A liquid measure of six cyathi, half a sextarius; a hēmīna.^[3][4][2]
2. A small cup.^[3][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A weight.^[12]
4. (New Latin, anatomy) The socket of the hip; acētābulum.^[1]

Usage notes

A separate Medieval Latin cotula (also cotila, codula) named the stinking chamomile; the MLW compares Italian cota,^[12] and Köbler calls its origin unclear.^[10] Another cōtula, a small whetstone, is a diminutive of cōs used by Anthimus.^[7][10] Cotyla was also the cognomen of Varius, a friend of Mark Antony, whom Cicero mentions in the Philippics.^[7][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften