cribrum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈkriː.brũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkriː.brum]^[1]

Forms

crībrum n (genitive crībrī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kreiþro-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *krei-dʰro- (“sieve”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *krei- (“to sift, separate”) seen in cernō “to sift”, with the instrument suffix -brum.^[2][1][3] Cognate with Old Irish críathar (“sieve”), Welsh crwydr (“sieve”) and Old English hrīdder (“sieve”).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.^[2][5] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was a sieve, for flour or other things, in Cato, Cicero, Columella, Pliny and Ovid.^[5][7] Plautus jokingly calls a slave whose back was pierced with goads a sieve of the executioners.^[5]

In medieval Latin it was a sieve, also figuratively, what is sifted, and a measure, and it also had technical uses in alchemy, music and mathematics.^[8][9] It survives as French crible, Italian crivo, Spanish criba and Portuguese crivo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][6]
• 234–149 BC – Cato lists it among farm tools.^[5][6]
• mid-14th century – English riddle “coarse sieve”, from a cognate Old English word, is recorded in this form.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sieve, riddle.^[3][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) What is sifted; a measure; a sieve in alchemy or mathematics.^[8][9]

Word family

• crībellum
• crībrārius
• crībrō

Related words

• cernō
• certus
• English riddle

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com