Etymologically
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discus

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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]

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