cribellum

Forms

crībellum n (genitive crībellī); second declension^[1] The masculine cribellus occurs in Aldhelm.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin crībrum + -lum, a diminutive of the word for a sieve.^[1][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Palladius (end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD), who has ground soda sprinkled from a sieve and wild grapes sifted through a close sieve, so that the grains stay back and only the flower falls through.^[3][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It means simply a sieve, and the TLL equates it with cribrum.^[3] The veterinary Mulomedicina Chironis and the medical writers Marcellus and Cassius Felix use it for sifting drugs, often through a very fine one.^[3] Medieval Latin kept it, also spelt crivellum,^[7][8] in recipe books and glossaries, where Old High German sib and similar words translate it,^[8][6] and an Old English glossary renders it “lytel sife”.^[2]

It survives in Italian crivello^[3][9] and Catalan crivell.^[1]

Timeline

• end of the 4th/beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius uses it for sprinkling and sifting.^[3][6]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm gives one of his riddles the title Cribellus.^[2][6]
• 10th century – An Old English glossary renders it “lytel sife”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small sieve.^{[4][5][10][7][8][2]}

Word family

• cribello

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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
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 c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.