Etymologically
Log in

fraces

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 00:54. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

fracēs f pl (genitive fracum); third declension[1] Flacēs also occurs, and glossaries have a singular frax.[2][3][4] No genitive is recorded.[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *frakēs.[1][2] De Vaan groups it with words for dregs and yeast elsewhere: Old Norse dregg (“yeast, dregs”), Old Prussian dragios (“yeast”), Lithuanian drãgės and Latvian dradži.[2] The OLD likewise compares the Norse word and English dregs.[3] Since their vowels and consonants do not match, de Vaan takes them all to be loans from an unknown non-Indo-European language, or from a lost Indo-European one.[2] Wiktionary gives an earlier *θrakēs and Proto-Indo-European *dʰrā́ks (“dregs, sediment”), probably itself not of Indo-European origin.[1] Lewis & Short connected it with frangō (“to break”), as “broken bits”.[4] De Vaan explains ⟨flacēs⟩ as influenced by floccēs.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cato on,[2][6][7] who warns that the longer oil stays on the watery residue and the pulp, the worse it will be (oleum quam diutissime in amurca et in fracibus erit, tam deterrimum erit).[4]

Semantic evolution

Strictly the word means the solid fragments of pulp left after the olives are pressed, as opposed to the watery amurca; more loosely, the lees of olive oil.[3] After Cato it is used by Columella, Pliny the Elder and Vitruvius.[4][8][9]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the pulp left after pressing olives.[4][7]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it.[4][7]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it.[4][6][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it.[4][9][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The solid fragments of olive pulp left after pressing.[3][6]
  2. The lees or dregs of olive oil.[3][4]

Word family

  • fraceō
  • fracidus
  • fracēscō
  • cōnfracēscō

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier