fascia

Forms

fascia f (genitive fasciae); first declension^[1] It is also spelled fascea.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is related to fascis “bundle”, from which Wiktionary and Etymonline derive it.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces fascis to Proto-Italic *faski- (“bundle”), an Italo-Celtic word with no Indo-European etymology, and compares Old Irish basc (“necklace”) and Welsh beich (“burden”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[6] in whose Truculentus a newborn needs swaddling bands, cushions and a cradle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a strip of material, a band or ribbon: Petronius has a puppy wrapped in a green band.^[2] It is a bandage, as in Cicero of a man bound in bandages and smeared with medicaments, and a swaddling band.^[2] As a garment it is a band for a woman's breasts, bands worn round the legs, and a band round the head, also as a mark of royalty.^[2] Vitruvius uses it in architecture of the flat bands of an architrave.^[2] Petronius has the saying ⟨nōn es nostrae fasciae⟩, “you are not one of us”.^[2] In Medieval Latin it was a terraced strip of farmland, and in New Latin a necktie.^[7][1] English fascia was borrowed in the 1560s, first in architecture, and in anatomy from 1788.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of swaddling bands.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of bandages.^[2][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of the bands of an architrave.^[2][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius, nōn es nostrae fasciae.^[2][6]
• 1560s – English fascia, in architecture.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strip of material, band, ribbon.^[2][3][1][8]
2. A bandage; a swaddling band.^[2][3][1]
3. A band worn as a garment: round a woman's breasts, round the legs, or round the head, also as a mark of royalty.^[2][3]
4. (architecture) A flat band of an architrave.^[2]
5. nōn es nostrae fasciae, you are not one of us.^[2]
6. (Medieval Latin) A terraced strip of farmland.^[7]
7. (New Latin) A necktie.^[1]

Word family

• fasciō
• fasciola

Related words

• fascis
• English fascia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson