Etymologically
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frustum

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈfrʊs.tũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈfrus.tum][1]

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