fasciculus

Forms

fasciculus m (genitive fasciculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fascis (“bundle”) + -culus, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces fascis to Proto-Italic *faski- (“bundle”), an Italo-Celtic word for which no Indo-European etymology is available.^[4] Cognate with Old Irish basc (“necklace”), Welsh beich (“burden”) and Breton bec'h (“load”), from Proto-Celtic *b(h)askio-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cato's On Agriculture,^[4][5] which speaks of bundles of myrtle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was a small bundle or packet, and in Pliny the Elder a handful of flax or herbs.^[2] Cicero uses it of a nosegay held to the nose, and of a packet of letters;^[2][6] Horace of a bundle of books carried under the arm.^[2][6] In Ecclesiastical Latin it is a sheaf or bunch, and also an issue or fascicle of a publication.^[7] In New Latin it names a computer file.^[1]

English fascicle (1620s) is from it.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of bundles of plants.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a packet of letters and of a nosegay.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a bundle of books.^[2][5]
• 1620s – English borrows it as fascicle.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small bundle, packet, parcel.^[2][6]
2. A handful (of herbs, flax).^[2]
3. A bunch of flowers, nosegay.^[2][6]
4. A packet of letters or books.^[2][6]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) An issue, fascicle.^[7]
6. (New Latin, computing) A computer file.^[1]

Word family

• fascicularia

Related words

• fascia
• fasciātim
• fasciger
• fascīna
• fasciō
• fasciola
• fascis
• English fascicle

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 j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com