Etymologically
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fictilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfɪk.tɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfik.ti.lis][1]

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

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