fibra

Forms

fibra f (genitive fibrae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OLD suggests a root ⟨*fid-⟩ of findō (“to split”), with the suffix of latebra, and Wiktionary and Köbler also connect it with that verb.^[4][1][5] An older comparison with fīlum (“thread”) through ⟨*fisra⟩ fails, since that noun is now traced to ⟨*gʷʰiH-lo-⟩, which would give a long /ī/.^[3] De Vaan takes fimbriae (“fringe”) as a specialized use of the same word; its unexplained nasal and the irregular alternation may point to a loanword.^[3]

Varro said the ancients called the edge ⟨februm⟩, whence the ⟨fimbriae⟩ of cloaks and the ⟨fibra⟩ at the edge of the liver.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,^[3][5] who uses it of the leaves or blades of leeks in a remedy.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is the leaf or blade of a plant, then a fibril of a root, as Cicero's young green that grows supported by the fibres of the roots.^[4][6] It is also a fold or lobe of anything divided by fissures, as Mela's bays and headlands that cut the coast of the Peloponnese like lobes.^[4] In anatomy it is a lobe of the liver, as in Lucilius, or of the lungs, as in Celsus, and fellis fibra is the gall bladder.^[4] In the plural it is the entrails, as in Ovid, and Pliny the Elder speaks of men searching the bowels of the earth.^[4]

Church Latin glosses it “fibre, filament”, and also “vocal cord, voice”.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of leek leaves.^[4][3][5]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of a lobe of the liver.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the fibres of roots.^[4][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of the lobes of the lungs.^[4][5]
• late 14th century – Borrowed into English as fibre, first “a lobe of the liver”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leaf or blade of a plant; a fibre, filament of a root.^[4][6][1]
2. A lobe, fold, section of anything divided.^[4]
3. A lobe of the liver or lungs; a fold of the intestines;^[4][6] fellis fibra, the gall bladder.^[4][6]
4. In the plural, the entrails; the bowels of the earth.^[4][6][1]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A vocal cord; the voice.^[7]

Word family

• fibratus

Related words

• fimbriae
• English fiber

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com