fiscella

Forms

fiscella f (genitive fiscellae); first declension^[1] A masculine fiscellus occurs in Columella.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a diminutive of fiscina (“wicker basket”), formed with -ella.^[4][5][1] That word comes from fiscus (“basket”), for which de Vaan finds no etymology: a derivation ⟨*fid-sko-⟩ from findō (“to cleave”) is conceivable but gratuitous.^[6] Augustine and Isidore already derived it from ⟨fiscus⟩.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Cato,^[6][7] who says oxen should wear fiscellae while ploughing so that they do not nibble at the grass.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a small basket woven of twigs or rushes, used for fruit and as a strainer, above all for draining cheese.^[4][2] Virgil has a basket woven of slender marshmallow, gracili fiscellam texit hibisco, and Tibullus, Ovid and Columella also use it.^[2][3] Besides the muzzle for oxen in Cato and Pliny the Elder, Varro uses it of a wicker guard tied on ewes to keep the rams off.^[4][3] A glossary explains it as a cheese mould, forma ubi casei exprimuntur.^[2][5] Medieval writers in Britain use it of a small basket, glossed in Old English, of a cheese basket, and of the basket of bulrushes in which the infant Moses was set out by the river.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a muzzle for oxen.^[4][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a guard for ewes.^[4][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil has a basket woven of marshmallow.^[3][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of baskets for cheese and fruit.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small basket of wicker or rushes, used for fruit and as a strainer, especially in cheesemaking.^[4][2][3]
2. A wicker muzzle for cattle; a guard tied on ewes against the rams.^[4][3]

Related words

• fiscina
• fiscus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ 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