discus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈdɪs.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈdis.kus]^[1]

Forms

discus m (genitive discī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “quoit, disc”).^[2][1][3] Köbler relates the Greek to δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to throw”).^[4] Isidore says it was first called ⟨iscus⟩ from its shield-like shape, and then ⟨discus⟩ because it “gives food”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of a discus.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a discus, a quoit thrown in gymnastic exercise, as in Cicero, Horace and Ovid.^[2][6][7] It was used of things shaped like a disc, a dish in Apuleius, a gong in Fronto, and in Vitruvius a kind of sundial.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a dish, and the paten in the Greek rite.^[8] Medieval Latin used it of a dish or tray and, through Germanic influence, a table.^[9] Old English disc, the source of English dish, and Old High German tisc were borrowed from it.^[10] Its Medieval Latin offshoot desca gave English desk, Old French deis gave English dais, and English discus itself came in the 1650s.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a discus.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a sundial.^[2][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it of a dish.^[2][4]
• mid-14th century – English desk is recorded, from Medieval Latin desca.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A discus, quoit.^[2]
2. A dish; a gong; a sundial.^[2]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A paten.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A table.^[9]

Related words

• scutella
• English dish
• English desk
• English disc
• English dais

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com