favilla

Pronunciation

• Classical: [faˈwɪl.la]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [faˈvil.la]^[1]

Forms

favilla f (genitive favillae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2] Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet connected it with foveō (“to warm”), and the OLD and the TLL do the same, but de Vaan points out that ⟨fav-⟩ conflicts with ⟨fov-⟩ if both came from Proto-Indo-European *dʰogʷʰ- (“to burn”).^[2][3][4] Schrijver took it for a non-native word because of its obscure formation and technical meaning.^[2] De Vaan prefers Vine's derivation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuH- (“to smoke”), through an adjective Proto-Italic *þowīno- (“smoky, sooty”), so that the word meant small smoky stuff, ashes.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence, where someone threatens that a music-girl will be covered in ash, smoke and flour from cooking and grinding.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan apart from Terence.^[6] It is the ash of a fire, especially that carried by wind, and the ashes left when something burns, above all a corpse: Ovid has the black ash of sacrifices on an altar.^[3] Vitruvius mixes it with sand and lime for building, and it was also used as a medicine and a cosmetic.^[3] Pliny the Elder calls the finest, whitest salt ⟨favilla salis⟩.^[3] The Appendix Probi corrects the spoken form: favilla, not ⟨failla⟩.^[7][4] The TLL lists Italian falliva among its descendants.^[4]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of ash from cooking.^[3][2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of ash in building material.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the ash of sacrifices.^[3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of fine salt.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Hot ash, embers, cinders; the ashes of a fire.^[3][6][8][1]
2. The ashes left by burning, especially of a corpse.^[3]
3. Ash used in building, in medicine or as a cosmetic.^[3]
4. favilla salis, fine powdery salt.^[3]

Related words

• foveō
• fūmus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson