frustum

Forms

frustum n (genitive frustī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *frusto-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrus-to- (“broken”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰrus- (“to break”) found otherwise in Celtic and Germanic.^[2][1] De Vaan compares Old Irish bruïd (“breaks, smashes”) and Old English brȳsan (“to break, bruise”).^[2] It has also been linked with Lithuanian druskà (“salt”) and Latvian druska (“crumb, scrap”) from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrus-, which de Vaan finds phonetically just as possible but less likely, since only the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰrus- has verb forms beside it.^[2] Isidore of Seville derived it from frūmen.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus.^[2][5] Cato prescribes adding a piece of ham to a remedy.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is above all a piece or morsel of food: Cato, quoted by Gellius, says a man can be hired for a crust of bread to keep silent or to speak, and Cicero tells of the morsel that falls from a chicken's beak as it feeds.^[7][6] In frusta secāre is to cut into pieces.^[6] It is also a small piece of anything else, as Seneca's tiny fragments of costly marble.^[6] In medieval texts it is an object or article, and a plot of land.^[8] English took it over in the 1650s as a term of mathematics, for the piece remaining after a part has been cut off.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of a piece of ham and a crust of bread.^[6][7][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the morsel dropped by a chicken.^[7][5]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of fragments of marble.^[6][5]
• 1650s – English frustum is taken over in mathematics.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece or scrap of food, morsel, crumb;^[6][7][1] in frusta, into pieces.^[6][7][1]
2. A small piece, fragment of anything.^[6][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) An object, article; a plot of land.^[8]

Word family

• defrusto
• frustillum
• frustulentus
• frustulum
• frustillātim

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
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 g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com