floccus

Forms

floccus m (genitive floccī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

There is no etymology.^[2] A connection with Old High German blaha (“coarse linen cloth”) is much too imprecise to inspire confidence,^[2] though Köbler and Wiktionary list it under Proto-Indo-European *bʰlok-.^[3][1] Georges compares Ancient Greek φλάζω (phlázō, “to tear”).^[4] The plural floccēs (“lees of wine”), found from Caecilius on, very probably belongs with it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[2][3] at first in the phrase floccī facere: dum tibi ego placeam, meum tergum floccī faciō, “as long as I please you, I don't care a straw for my back” (Epidicus 348).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense is a tuft or flock of wool, as in Varro, who notes that sheep are shorn on mats so that no tufts are lost.^[5][7] Celsus mentions fever patients picking at the tufts on their clothes, and Pliny the Elder uses it for the fluff inside fruits.^[4]

Its common use, from Plautus and Terence to Cicero's letters, was in phrases of contempt: floccī facere, floccī pendere or floccī nōn interduim, to care not a straw for something.^[5][7][4] It survives in Italian fiocco.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses floccī facere.^[5][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence has floccī pendere.^[4][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for tufts of wool.^[5][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the phrase in a letter.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tuft or flock of wool; fluff on cloth or in fruit.^[5][7][4]
2. In floccī facere, floccī pendere, floccī nōn interduim: to care not a straw for, to think of no importance.^[5][7]

Word family

• dēfloccō
• floccōsus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press