dolabra

Forms

dolābra f (genitive dolābrae); first declension^[1] A neuter dolābrum occurs in the old Latin Psalms and in glossaries, which also have dolobra, dolubra and delebra.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin dolō¹ (“to hew”) + -bra.^[4][1][2] Rix takes it as an old instrument noun, Proto-Indo-European *delh₁-dʰreh₂-, and so as evidence that dolō¹ was a primary verb rather than one made from a noun.^[5] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁-ie/o- (“to cut repeatedly”) or *d(e)lh₁-ie/o- (“to cut”), comparing Lithuanian dìlti (“to wear off, disappear”).^[5]

Isidore of Seville explained the name from the tool having “two lips”.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is Cincius, whom he dates to about 200 BC.^[7] De Vaan finds it from Livy on,^[5] where pickaxes are handed out to the camp servants to tear down a rampart and fill in the ditches.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was above all a military tool for undermining walls and breaking down gates and earthworks, in Livy, Curtius and Tacitus;^[2][8] Vegetius lists it among a legion's tools.^[2] Curtius also has it used to hack vessels apart and to break ice,^[2] and a saying of Domitius Corbulo, that the enemy must be beaten with the pickaxe, meant by siege works.^[2] The prefect of the night watch patrolled with hooks and pickaxes,^[2] farmers used it to grub up roots and to cut away dry shoots,^[2][8] and the jurists mention it as a butcher's tool.^[8]

In Medieval Latin it was an axe, chisel or plane for working wood and stone, and by extension the stonemason's craft and a levy on it;^[9] British glosses render it as broad-axe.^[10] The TLL notes Old French dolavre.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 200 BC – Cincius uses it.^[7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of pickaxes for tearing down ramparts and walls.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of a farm tool for grubbing up roots.^[2][7]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of soldiers' tools for breaking walls.^[2][7]
• after 220 AD – The old Latin Psalms have the neuter dolābrum.^[2][7]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius lists it among a legion's tools.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pickaxe or mattock, used by soldiers to break down walls and earthworks.^[4][8][3]
2. A farm tool for grubbing up roots and pruning.^[8][2]
3. A butcher's tool.^[8]
4. (Medieval Latin) An axe, chisel or plane for wood or stone.^[9][10]

Word family

• Dolābella
• dolābrārius
• dolābrātus

Related words

• dolō¹

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
10. ^ 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