fritillus

Forms

fritillus m (genitive fritillī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OLD takes it as imitative,^[4] and the TLL suggests that the box may have been named after the sound of falling dice, comparing fritinniō (“to twitter”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Seneca,^[3] whose Apocolocyntosis speaks of playing at dice pertūsō fritillō, with a dice box full of holes.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is the box from which dice were thrown,^[4][7] mentioned by Martial, Juvenal and Sidonius.^[7][6] The ancient commentator Porphyrio, explaining a word in Horace, says that it is what “we” call a fritillus, in which the dice are put, shaken and thrown.^[2] In British medieval Latin it is still a dice box, and a glossary also gives it the sense of a pepper mill.^[8]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it in the Apocolocyntosis.^[3][5]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial speaks of shaking the dice box.^[6][3]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it.^[7][3]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it in a letter.^[6][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dice box.^[4][7]
2. (Medieval Latin) A pepper mill.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press