Etymologically
Log in

folliculus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 16:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [fɔlˈlɪ.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [folˈliː.ku.lus][1]

Forms

folliculus m (genitive folliculī); second declension[1] A neuter folliculum is recorded by Paulus' epitome of Festus, Isidore and the glossaries.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin follis (“bag, bellows, ball”) + -culus, a diminutive.[3][1][2] De Vaan connects follis with Proto-Celtic *bol-, as in Old Irish ball (“member, limb”) and Welsh balleg (“sack, purse”), but finds no further etymology.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan, Köbler and the TLL find it first in Lucilius,[4][5][2] who uses it of the body as the husk in which a person is clothed.[6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was a small bag or sack:[3][6] Livy has grain carried in sacks,[6] and the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Cicero describe a convicted parricide's head wrapped in a bag, of wolf's skin in the former.[3][6] Suetonius uses it of an inflated ball for exercise.[3][6] By likeness it named the husk or skin of a seed, which Varro says is called the glume,[3][6] a seed pod,[3] the shell of a cicada in Lucretius,[6] and a bladder or sac in animal bodies, such as the gall bladder in Pliny the Elder.[3][6]

In Late Latin medicine Caelius Aurelianus uses it for a sac and for the bladder.[6][1] English borrowed it in the early 15th century as follicle, a small sac in anatomy.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of the body as the soul's husk.[6][5][4]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of the husk of grain.[3][6]
  • 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of the shells of cicadas.[6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of seed pods and the gall bladder.[3]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of an inflated ball.[3][6]
  • 5th century AD – Caelius Aurelianus uses it in medicine for a sac and for the bladder.[6][5]
  • early 15th century – English borrows it as follicle.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small bag or sack.[3][6]
  2. An inflated ball.[3][6]
  3. The husk, shell or skin of a seed or fruit; a seed pod.[3][6]
  4. A bladder or sac in an animal body.[3][6]
  5. (Late Latin, medicine) A sac; the urinary bladder.[6][1]

Word family

  • folliculosus
  • folleātus
  • folleō
  • follicō
  • folligena
  • follis
  • follītim
  • English follicle

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  3. ^ 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
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com