fabrilis

Forms

fabrīlis (neuter fabrīle, adverb fabrīliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin faber (“craftsman, smith”) + -īlis.^[2][3][4] faber goes back to Proto-Italic *fafro-; de Vaan tentatively derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰHbʰ-ro- (“craftsman”), with a cognate in an Armenian word for “smith”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and the OLD first find it in Cicero,^[3][2] who in a letter to Atticus speaks of a craftsman's error, a mistake made by the workman.^[2][6] De Vaan dates it from Varro.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It describes whatever belongs to a worker in wood, stone or metal: a smith's bellows and a carpenter's chisel in Livy, the god of fire rising to the work of his forge in Virgil, a craftsman's hand in Ovid.^[7][8][2] Vitruvius uses it for craftsmanlike skill, and Celsus and Pliny the Elder for the glue used by craftsmen.^[2][7] As a noun, fabrīlia, it meant a craftsman's work or tools, as in Horace.^[6][9] In Pliny the Elder and Apicius it also describes things dried in the smoke of a forge.^[6]

Medieval writers used it for the smith's craft and tools: Bede speaks of the blows of the smith, and British sources list smiths' tools such as hammers.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of a craftsman's error.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of the work of the forge.^[2][3]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for craftsmanlike skill.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy mentions a carpenter's chisel.^[7][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a workman or artisan; of a smith, carpenter or builder.^[2][7]
2. Craftsmanlike, skilled.^[2]
3. (neuter plural as noun) A craftsman's work or tools.^[6][9]
4. Dried in the smoke of a forge.^[6]

Word family

• fabrīliter

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften