cultellus

Forms

cultellus m (genitive cultellī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin culter (“knife”) + -lus, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] De Vaan connects culter with Proto-Indo-European *(s)kolh2/3-tro- (“instrument for cleaving”), from the root *(s)kelh2/3- (“to split, cleave”), but notes that some prefer a dissimilated form of a stem in /r/ from the root *(s)ker- (“to shear, cut off”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD date it from the historian Sempronius Asellio,^[3][2] who writes of a shoemaker's knife, crepidārium cultellum.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Varro uses it,^[5][6] and Valerius Maximus has the barber's cultellus tōnsōrius, used for paring nails.^[4] Vitruvius applies it to wooden pegs driven into reeds to fix them to the rafters.^[2][5] The TLL notes that it lives on in the Romance languages: Italian coltello, French couteau and Spanish cuchillo.^[7] In medieval Latin it is any knife, also a sword or dagger,^[8] a knife handed over as a token of seisin,^[9] and the coulter of a plough.^[10] Through French it is the source of English cutlery and, through Italian, of cutlass.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 100 BC – Sempronius Asellio writes of a shoemaker's knife.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[5][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of wooden pegs.^[2][6]
• 764 – A letter in the Boniface collection mentions a gift of twenty knives.^[9]
• mid-14th century – English cutlery is recorded, from Old French.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small knife.^[2][5][12]
2. A wooden peg or pin used to fasten one thing to another.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A sword or dagger.^[8][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) The coulter of a plough.^[10]

Related words

• culter
• English cutlery
• English cutlass

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson