Etymologically
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gallinaceus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɡal.liːˈnaː.ke.ʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ɡal.liˈnaː.t͡ʃe.us][1]

Forms

gallīnāceus (feminine gallīnācea, neuter gallīnāceum); first/second-declension adjective[1] Manuscripts often have gallīnācius.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin gallīna (“hen”) + -āceus.[2][3][1] gallīna is the feminine of gallus (“cock”).[4][1] De Vaan thinks the best explanation of gallus is the link with a root Proto-Indo-European *glH- (“to call”), the cock as “the caller”, though there are formal difficulties; a naming after the Gauls has nothing to support it.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has gallus gallīnāceus, a farmyard cock, in the Aulularia.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is the adjective of farmyard poultry, as the gallus gallīnāceus of Lucilius and Cicero.[6] Petronius' lac gallīnāceum, “hen's milk”, stands for something impossible to get, and Pliny the Elder uses the masculine as a noun for a cockerel.[2] It also names plants: Plautus' cunīla gallīnācea, perhaps wild marjoram, and Pliny's pedes gallīnāceī, a kind of fumitory.[2] Manuscripts often spell it ⟨gallinacius⟩.[2][3] English gallinaceous comes from it and dates from 1783.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a farmyard cock and a plant.[2][6][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of cocks.[6][7]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius, of “hen's milk”.[2][7]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of a cockerel.[2][7]
  • 1783 – English gallinaceous.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of the domestic fowl or poultry.[2][6][1]
  2. lac gallīnāceum: something impossible to get.[2]
  3. cunīla gallīnācea: a plant, perhaps wild marjoram;[2] pedes gallīnāceī: a kind of fumitory.[2]

Noun

  1. A cockerel.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de