Etymologically
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fibra

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 17:07. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɪ.bra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfiː.bra][1]

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

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