craticula

Forms

crāticula f (genitive crāticulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] De Vaan reconstructs crātis as Proto-Italic *krāti- (“wickerwork”) and compares Old High German hurd (“hurdle”) and Old Prussian corto (“fence”), but since no Proto-Indo-European root of the right shape and meaning is known, he thinks this correspondence is probably not of Indo-European origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,^[4][5] who lists two gridirons among the equipment in the De agricultura.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Petronius describes hot sausages served on a silver gridiron, and Martial uses it too.^[3][7] Lewis and Short take the basic sense to be fine hurdle-work, from which a small gridiron.^[7] An Old Latin Bible translation spells it ⟨graticula⟩ in Exodus,^[3] and Bede comments on the gridiron of the altar described there.^[8] In medieval Latin it was a grill or grating of any kind, used also for torture and in allusions to the gridiron of Saint Lawrence.^[9][8] It lives on in Italian graticola, and through French it gave English grill and grille.^[1][10]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato lists two gridirons among farm equipment.^[3][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius describes sausages on a silver gridiron.^[3][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it.^[7][5]
• 1660s – English grille is recorded, from French.^[10]
• 1680s – English grill “gridiron” is recorded, from French.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small gridiron, grill.^[2][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The grating of an altar.^[8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A grating, lattice; a gridiron used for torture.^[9][8]

Related words

• crāticulus
• crāticulum
• crātis
• English grill
• English grille

References

1. ^ a b c 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 f 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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com