fulcrum

Forms

fulcrum n (genitive fulcrī); second declension^[1] A variant fulctrum is also found.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin fulciō (“to prop up”) + -crum.^[1][4][3] The OLD calls the formation of the ending doubtful.^[2] The verb's own origin is unclear: its stem is often compared with Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “beam”) and Old High German balko (“beam”), but de Vaan finds the connection of meaning weak.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is from Lucilius, in a line that sets a fulcrum in place and adds four supports;^[2][6] de Vaan dates it from Varro.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It named the curved head- or back-rest of a couch, which L&S describes as the post or foot of a bed or dining couch.^[2][4] Virgil speaks of the golden fulcra of festive couches and Propertius of an ivory one.^[2][4] By the part for the whole it came to mean the couch itself, as in Propertius and Juvenal, and Ammianus has a feather couch, fulcrum plūmeum.^[4][7]

Medieval Latin used it generally for a support, base or pedestal, and figuratively for help.^[8] English took it in the 1670s as a term of mechanics for the prop on which a lever turns.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it for the head-rest of a couch.^[2][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro speaks of couches with or without a fulcrum.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil describes the golden fulcra of festive couches.^[2][6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius uses it for the couch itself.^[4][6]
• 1670s – English borrows it as a term of mechanics.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The head- or back-rest of a couch; a bedpost.^[2][4]
2. (by extension) A couch.^[4][7]
3. (doubtful) The sole of the foot.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A support, base, pedestal; help.^[8]

Related words

• fulmentum
• English fulcrum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
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