cribro

Forms

crībrō (present infinitive crībrāre, perfect active crībrāvī, supine crībrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin crībrum (“sieve”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] Crībrum goes back to Proto-Italic *kreiþro- and Proto-Indo-European *krei-dʰro- (“sieve”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Columella has it, of salt that is well boiled and sifted.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

L&S thinks it perhaps not earlier than the Augustan age.^[5] Besides Columella and Pliny the Elder it is frequent in the late veterinary and medical writers, often spelled criblo.^[3] The Vulgate uses it of sifting ashes, and of sifting the waters from the clouds.^[3]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it in his work on farming.^[3][5][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.^[5][6]
• after 220 AD – The Itala has it at Luke 22:31, with variant spellings in the manuscripts.^[3][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of sifting ashes throughout a temple.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pass through a sieve, to sift.^[2][5][7]

Word family

• incrībrō
• percrībrō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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 e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson