furcilla

Forms

furcilla f (genitive furcillae); first declension^[1][2] Paulus' epitome of Festus gives a variant furcilles, probably in error.^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin furca + -illa, a diminutive of the word for a fork.^[1][2] The TLL derives it through the intermediate diminutive furcula.^[3]

De Vaan finds no convincing etymology for furca: the explanations collected by Walde and Hofmann all presuppose a PIE initial *ǵʰ-, which would normally have given Latin /h/ before a vowel.^[4] Servius explained the word from a verb meaning “to move”, because grain is moved about with such forks.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro (116–27 BC) is the first to use it, for the small wooden forks with which cut grass is turned while it dries.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the pitchfork, it named a forked prop set under a vine, a fork for carrying loads, and a cross-shaped frame.^[1] The image of throwing someone out with a pitchfork gave a figurative phrase: Cicero wrote to Atticus quoniam furcilla extrudimur, Brundisium cogito, “since we are being pitchforked out, I am thinking of Brundisium”,^[1][2] and Catullus has the Muses throw a bad poet out headlong furcillis.^[2]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for hay forks and for forked props under vines.^[1][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has the Muses drive a poet out with pitchforks.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes that he is being “pitchforked out” of Rome.^[1][2][5]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the word in his work on agriculture.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small wooden pitchfork.^[1][2]
2. (figurative) In furcillā extrūdere and similar phrases: to drive out brutally, to throw out.^[1]
3. A forked prop; a fork for carrying loads; a cross-shaped frame.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de