fictilis

Forms

fictilis (neuter fictile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fictus (“shaped, moulded”) + -ilis, from the past participle of fingō (“to shape, mould”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces fingō to Proto-Italic *finge/o- (“to knead, form”) and Proto-Indo-European *dʰi-n-ǵʰ-, the root of Oscan feíhúss (“walls”).^[4] Isidore says that earthenware is so called because it is made and shaped from earth.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[5] De Vaan dates it from Cato.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is made of clay, earthenware, terracotta: Cicero speaks of clay figures, of an earthenware statue of Summanus, and of earthenware vessels.^[6] Tibullus has clay cups and Pliny the Elder clay jars.^[6] The OLD also notes its use of people, as made from clay by Prometheus.^[2] The TLL notes that it is used almost proverbially of the simple life of the ancients.^[3] As a neuter noun, mostly in the plural ⟨fictilia⟩, it is an earthenware vessel, as in Ovid and Pliny the Elder, and Livy has clay figures of the gods on temples.^[6] Church Latin glosses it earthen, made of clay.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it.^[4][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of clay figures and vessels.^[6][5]
• c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus of clay cups.^[6][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of clay, earthen, earthenware, terracotta.^[2][6][1][7]
2. Of people, made of clay.^[2]

Noun

1. fictile, usually in the plural fictilia, an earthenware vessel; a clay figure of a god.^[6]

Word family

• fictiliārius

Related words

• fingō
• figulus
• English fictile

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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