Etymologically
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fasciculus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fasˈkɪ.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [faʃˈʃiː.ku.lus][1]

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
  • 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