Etymologically
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falcatus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [faɫˈkaː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [falˈkaː.tus][1]

Forms

falcātus (feminine falcāta, neuter falcātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin falx (“sickle”) + -ātus.[2][1][3] The origin of falx is unclear: de Vaan finds a comparison with Old Irish delg (“thorn, pin”) and Old Norse dálkr (“pin, dagger”) acceptable in meaning but not in form, so that at most it is a borrowing from a non-Latin Indo-European language of Italy;[4][5] Ernout and Meillet suspected a loanword.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Virgil and the Bellum Alexandrinum;[6] Virgil has curved swords for close fighting, falcati comminus enses.[3]

Semantic evolution

It means furnished with curved blades, especially of scythed chariots, in the Bellum Alexandrinum, Livy and Curtius;[2][7] Livy also has beams fitted with hooks that swept the battlements.[2] It also means curved like a sickle or pruning hook:[2] Ovid uses it of a curved sword, as the one with which Perseus wounds the sea monster,[3][7] and Servius explains Virgil's curved sword as the harpē of Perseus.[3] Ovid also has a sickle-shaped tail, and Pliny the Elder too uses it of a tail.[2][7] English falcate (1801), “curved like a sickle”, is from it.[5]

Timeline

  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of curved swords.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of scythed chariots and hooked beams.[2][7][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid, of a curved sword and a sickle-shaped tail.[3][2][6]
  • 1801 – Borrowed into English as falcate.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Furnished with curved blades; of chariots, scythed.[2][7][1]
  2. Curved like a sickle, hooked, falcate.[2][7][1][5]
  • falx
  • falcārius
  • English falcate

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press