Etymologically
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foculus

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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]

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