Etymologically
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fritillus

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 21:28. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [frɪˈtɪl.lʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [friˈtil.lus][1]

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