Etymologically
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filo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfiː.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfiː.lo][1]

Forms

fīlō (present infinitive fīlāre, perfect active fīlāvī, supine fīlātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fīlum (“thread”), a verb formed from the noun.[2][1][3] It is the source of Italian filare, French filer and Spanish hilar.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary dates it from the 4th century;[1] the TLL's first example is in the Conflictus of Arnobius the Younger: lāna nētur aut fīlātur aut torquētur, “wool is spun, or drawn into thread, or twisted”.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “to draw out into threads, spin”, used in Venantius Fortunatus of a girl spinning and of a ball of thread that Radegund had spun.[2][4] Venantius also uses it figuratively, of a wound pouring out blood in a thin stream.[2][3][5] A scholiast on Terence uses it to explain nēre, “to spin”.[2] Medieval writers use it of spinning wool, silk and yarn, of animals that spin a thread around themselves, and in charters of women who spin and weave;[6] Fredegar's chronicle has a play on spinning, with the phrase fīlō fīlābō, “I will spin a thread”.[6] Wiktionary also gives the sense “to weave”.[1]

Timeline

  • 4th century AD – First recorded.[1]
  • 536–c. 610 AD – Venantius Fortunatus uses it of spinning and, figuratively, of flowing blood.[2][7]
  • 613–658 AD – Fredegar's chronicle has fīlō fīlābō.[6][7]
  • 1141 – A Lower Rhine charter speaks of what a woman has spun and woven.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To draw out into thread, spin.[3][5][4]
  2. (figurative) To pour out in a thin stream.[5][2]
  3. (Late Latin) To weave.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de