foculus

Forms

foculus m (genitive foculī); second declension^[1] Plautus has a neuter plural focula.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin focus (“hearth”) + -ulus.^[3][1][2] De Vaan finds no acceptable etymology for focus; he rejects Hamp's view that focus was formed back from this diminutive as chronologically difficult.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus speaks of dishes kept warm on glowing braziers, epulas foveri foculis ferventibus,^[2] and jokes about leftovers warmed on the brazier of the belly.^[2] De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,^[4][5] who has it of a small coal pan for warming.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is a small portable stove or brazier, especially one used at sacrifices.^[3] Varro, Cicero and Seneca use it of a small sacrificial hearth, and Livy of a man thrusting his right hand into a fire lit for sacrifice.^[6][2] Pliny the Elder tells of a likeness drawn on a wall with a dead coal snatched from a brazier.^[2] Juvenal uses it for the fire itself, blown up with puffed cheeks.^[2][6] Church Latin has it as a portable stove or chafing dish.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of braziers keeping food warm.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato, of a coal pan.^[6][4][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a sacrificial fire.^[2][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal, of a kitchen fire.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small portable stove, brazier, chafing dish.^[3][2][1]
2. A small sacrificial hearth.^[3][6]
3. (transferred) A fire.^[2][6]

Related words

• focus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson