falcula

Forms

falcula f (genitive falculae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin falx (“sickle”) + -ula, a diminutive.^[1][3][2] For falx itself de Vaan finds no clear Latin-internal or Indo-European source: Latin ⟨-al-⟩ and the final ⟨-x⟩ cannot come from the root of Old Irish delg (“thorn, pin”) and Old Norse dálkr (“pin, dagger”), so at most it is a borrowing from a non-Latin Indo-European language of Italy.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to use it: in his book on farming he lists forty pruning knives for vines and ten for other work among a farm's tools.^[1][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is a small sickle or billhook for pruning, in Cato and Columella.^[1][2][6] Pliny the Elder transferred it to the curved claws of lions and similar animals.^[1][2][6]

British medieval Latin also used it as the name of the sand martin, a calque on Greek δρεπανίς (drepanís, “swift”), so called from the shape of its wings.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato lists falculae for vines among a farm's tools.^[1][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella names pruning knives and iron hooks for the vintage.^[3][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the claws of lions.^[1][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small sickle, a pruning knife or billhook.^[1][2]
2. The curved claw of an animal.^[1][2]
3. (Medieval Latin) The sand martin.^[7]

Related words

• falx

Usage notes

As a man's name, Falcula was a Roman cognomen, found in Cicero.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b 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. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org