Etymologically
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flagellum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fɫaˈɡɛl.lũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [flaˈd͡ʒɛl.lum][1]

Forms

flagellum n (genitive flagellī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is the diminutive of flagrum (“whip”), formed with -ellum.[2][3][4] De Vaan traces ⟨flagrum⟩ to Proto-Italic *flagro- (“whip”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰlHg-ro-, and links it with flāgitō (“to demand”), from an older verb “to whip”; he compares Old Norse blaka (“to hit back and forth”) and Lithuanian blokšti (“to swing back and forth”), but the reconstruction is not certain.[5] Varro explained it from the blowing of the wind, like flabellum (“fan”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,[5][6] in whose Origines someone says of horses “take the whip”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a whip or lash, for punishment or for driving horses;[2][4] Lewis and Short call it harsher than the strap scutica.[2][4] Cicero says the Porcian law removed the rods from citizens' bodies while his opponent brought back the lash.[2] It is also the whip for spinning a top, and the thong of a javelin.[2] Varro uses it of the young whip-like shoot of a vine, and Ovid of the arms of a polyp.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “whip, scourge”.[7] In Medieval Latin it was a flail for threshing grain, and an affliction or divine punishment.[8] English flagellum “lash-like appendage” dates from 1837, and flagellate “to whip” from the 1620s.[9]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato of a horse whip.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a vine shoot.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the lash as a punishment.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a polyp's arms.[2][6]
  • Medieval Latin – a flail; a divine scourge.[8]
  • 1837 – English flagellum.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A whip, lash, scourge; a whip for driving horses or spinning a top; the thong of a javelin.[2][4][1][7]
  2. A young shoot of a vine or other plant.[2][1]
  3. An arm of a polyp, tentacle.[2][1]
  4. (Medieval Latin) A flail; an affliction, divine punishment.[8]

Word family

  • flagellaticius
  • flagellō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com