fascio

Forms

fasciō (present infinitive fasciāre, perfect active fasciāvī, supine fasciātum); first conjugation^[1] The TLL records the spelling fasceare in Sidonius Apollinaris.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin fascia (“band, bandage”) + -ō.^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's earliest instance is in Celsus, of a bandage taken from the left collarbone to the right armpit and back under the armpit, though it suggests the passage may have read fascia dari instead.^[2][5] Martial has the bandaged trunk of a talkative shipwrecked man (naufragus loquax fasciato trunco).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was mostly a medical word: the Historia Augusta says that Antoninus Pius had boards of lime wood bound to his chest so that he could walk upright,^[2][7] the veterinary writers Pelagonius, the Mulomedicina Chironis and Vegetius use it for bandaging horses' legs and eyes,^[2] and the Latin Soranus for swaddling infants.^[2][7] The Vulgate uses it of binding the arm of Pharaoh with linen.^[2][7] The perfect participle fasciatus was also used as an adjective.^[2]

Medieval Latin kept the general sense of binding and wrapping, also of swaddling the infant Christ, and the medical one.^[8] The TLL lists its continuants Italian fasciare and French faisser.^[2]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of bandaging, if the text is sound.^[2][5][9]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses the participle of a bandaged trunk.^[2][6][9]
• 360 AD – Pelagonius uses it for bandaging horses.^[2][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of binding an arm with linen.^[2][7][9]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it in his veterinary work.^[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bandage, bind with bands (the body or a limb, for treatment).^[3][2][7]
2. To swaddle (an infant).^[2][7]
3. To bind or wrap (other things).^[2][10][8]

Related words

• fascia

References

1. ^ 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 r Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.