ferula

Forms

ferula f (genitive ferulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Assuming that the giant fennel was named for its long stalks, de Vaan and the OLD suggest a connection with festūca (“stalk, straw”), with the same stem in each; there is no further etymology.^[4][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Varro,^[4][3] who mentions beehives made of fennel stalks.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the giant fennel, Ferula communis, and its stalk;^[2][1] Lewis & Short note that Prometheus was said to have kept the stolen fire in its pith.^[5] Vitruvius uses it for a group of plants, saying that the laser grew among them at Cyrene,^[2] and Virgil shows Silvanus shaking flowering fennel.^[2][5]

The stalk gave the sense of a stick or rod, above all for punishment: Horace contrasts beating with the ferula with heavier floggings, and Juvenal and Martial use it too.^[2][5] Döderlein sets it apart from fūstis, a club heavy enough to kill, as a little stick or cane for chastising schoolboys.^[6] It was also a walking stick, and in Celsus a splint for broken bones;^[2][5] Pliny the Elder uses it for the unbranched horns of a young stag.^[2][5]

Church Latin used it for a wand or long staff,^[7] and medieval Latin for a crutch and for a bishop's crosier.^[8] English took the word in the late 14th century for the fennel plant; its later form ferule, a rod for punishing children, dates from the 1590s.^[9]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro has hives made from fennel stalks.^[2][4][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has Silvanus with flowering fennel.^[2][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a cane for punishment.^[2][5][3]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it of a splint.^[2][5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the horns of a young stag.^[2][5][3]
• Middle Ages – It means a crutch and a crosier.^[8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it for the fennel plant;^[9] ferule, a rod, follows in the 1590s.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The giant fennel, Ferula communis; a fennel stalk.^[2][5][1]
2. A stick or rod, especially for punishing slaves or schoolboys, a cane.^[2][5]
3. A walking stick, a staff.^[2][5][7]
4. (medicine) A splint.^[2][5][1]
5. The unbranched horn of a young stag.^[2][5][1]
6. (Medieval Latin) A crutch; a crosier.^[8]

Word family

• ferulāceus
• ferulago
• ferularis
• feruleus

Related words

• festūca
• English ferule

Usage notes

Döderlein groups it with the words for sticks: fustis and ferula are for striking, sudēs and rudis for thrusting, and scīpiō and baculus for walking.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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 e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com