ficatum

Forms

fīcātum n (genitive fīcātī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fīcus (“fig”), the neuter of an adjective in -ātus with iecur (“liver”) understood: “the fig-fed liver”.^[2][3][1] The TLL takes it as modelled on Ancient Greek συκωτόν (sukōtón), the Greek name for such a liver, which the glossaries give as its equivalent.^[2][3][4]

It is the source of the Romance words for the liver, such as Italian fegato, Spanish hígado and French foie.^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the cookery book of Apicius, of the 4th century AD,^[6] for the liver of an animal fattened on figs.^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The dish was older than the word: Horace already speaks of the liver of a white goose fed on rich figs, and the TLL notes that the animals were usually geese or pigs.^[2][5] From the fattened liver the word passed to the liver of any animal: Caelius Aurelianus and Marcellus Empiricus use it so.^[4][7]

In Medieval Latin it was the ordinary word for the liver, often in the plural,^[8][9] and glossaries equate it with iecur and Greek epar.^[5][10] A British glossary even uses it, in error, for the lung.^[10] This is the sense its Romance descendants continue.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 4th century AD – Apicius uses it for the liver of a fig-fed animal.^[3][6]
• 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it for the liver in general.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The liver of an animal fattened on figs, as a dish.^[3][4][7]
2. (Late Latin) The liver in general.^[4][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) The liver.^[9][8][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press