crepida

Forms

crepida f (genitive crepidae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρηπίς (krēpís, “man's shoe”),^[2][3][1][4] taken from the accusative κρηπῖδα (krēpîda), with its vowels shortened by a shift of the accent.^[2] The TLL notes that the word was reshaped as if it came from crepō “to rattle”.^[5] Köbler compares the Greek word with Proto-Indo-European *krēp- (“rag, shoe”).^[4][6] Isidore of Seville said the sandals were so called because they are fastened with a sound, or from the noise of the feet in walking.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the TLL find it first in Catullus,^[4][5] who speaks of rawhide peasant crepidae (crepidās carbatinās).^[5][7] Cicero mentions a statue on the Capitol showing Lucius Scipio in a Greek cloak and crepidae.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

It named the Greek sandal, a thick sole fastened to the foot with straps, which on a Roman was usually thought an affectation;^[2][7] Lewis and Short give solea as the native Latin word.^[8] Livy describes Scipio walking about the gymnasium in a Greek cloak and crepidae.^[5][7] Gellius notes that the Romans called these shoes crepidae and crepidulae, with a short first syllable, and their makers crepidāriī.^[5]

Horace has the wise man who never made himself crepidae and yet is a cobbler.^[5] Pliny the Elder tells how Apelles, corrected by a cobbler about a sandal, forbade him to judge above the sandal, which gave the proverb nē suprā crepidam sūtor iūdicāret, “let the cobbler stick to his last”.^[8][5][9] Isidore notes that the same crepida fitted either foot.^[5]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus speaks of rawhide crepidae.^[5][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions a statue of Scipio in crepidae.^[5][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy describes Scipio wearing them in the gymnasium.^[5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder records the proverb about the cobbler.^[8][5][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius discusses the name and its short first syllable.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Greek sandal, a thick sole fastened to the foot by straps.^[2][8][7]
2. (loosely) A sandal or shoe.^[1][9]

Word family

• crepidārius
• crepidātus
• crepidula

Related words

• crepīdō

Usage notes

The proverb nē suprā crepidam sūtor iūdicāret (Pliny the Elder, Natural History 35.85; also in Valerius Maximus) is the source of the saying “cobbler, stick to your last”.^[8][5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier