gamba

Forms

gamba f (genitive gambae); first declension^[1] Manuscripts often write it camba.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “bend, joint”),^[2][1][4] the bending of the joint.^[5] Lewis & Short give the Greek source only as possible.^[6] Etymonline reports that Beekes considers the Greek word to come from a Pre-Greek or other substrate.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is the veterinary writer Pelagonius, who heads a chapter on the hips and gambae of horses: the hock, the joint of a horse's hind leg that corresponds to the knee of the foreleg.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the veterinary works of Vegetius and the Mulomedicina Chironis it is the hock or the leg below it, often written ⟨camba⟩.^[2][6] Less exactly it meant the leg of an animal, as in a poem of the Anthologia Latina, and glossaries explain it by crūra “legs”.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it was the human leg below the knee,^[3] and also the upper leg or thigh.^[1] It survives in Italian gamba, French jambe, Catalan camba and Old Spanish cama.^[2][1] Through Old French ⟨jambe⟩ it is the source of English jamb, the side post of a door.^[5]

Timeline

• 360 AD – Pelagonius uses it of the hock of a horse.^[2][4]
• 4th century AD – The Mulomedicina Chironis uses it often, spelled ⟨camba⟩.^[2][4]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it in his veterinary treatise.^[2][6][4]
• early 14th century – English takes jamb from Old French ⟨jambe⟩.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) The hock of a horse; the leg below it.^[2][6][1]
2. (Late Latin) The leg of an animal.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) The human leg below the knee; the thigh.^[3][1]

Word family

• gambosus

Related words

• English jamb

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press