Etymologically
Log in

cultellus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 21:21. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʊɫˈtɛl.lʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kulˈtɛl.lus][1]

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]
  • 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