gausapa

Forms

gausapa f (genitive gausapae); first declension^[1] The word has several forms: neuter gausape (genitive gausapis) and gausapum, masculine gausapēs, and feminine gausapa; the OLD enters it under gausape.^[2][3][4] The grammarians Charisius and Priscian discuss the forms, and Varro, as Charisius reports, set the Latin feminine gausapa beside the Greek masculine.^[5][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γαυσάπης (gausápēs, “frieze, shaggy cloth”), according to Wiktionary, Köbler, Saalfeld and Lewis & Short;^[1][6][7][4] Köbler, citing Frisk, adds that the Greek word came from an Indo-European language of the Balkans.^[6] The OLD calls the origin doubtful,^[2] and the TLL calls it a foreign word, perhaps oriental or from Patavium (Padua), noting that Varro took it to be Greek.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in Lucilius, of a purple cloth used to wipe the tables (purpureō tersit tunc lātās gausape mēnsās).^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

It named a thick woollen cloth with a shaggy nap on one side,^[3][8] used for tablecloths, wiping cloths and coverings, and a garment made of it.^[2][3] Horace, like Lucilius, has a purple gausape wiping a table;^[8][3] Ovid uses the plural for clothes of frieze,^[4][3] and Petronius has involūtus coccinā gausapā, “wrapped in scarlet frieze”.^[4][3] Pliny the Elder says that gausapa came into use in his father's time.^[4] Persius jokingly calls a perfumed beard a gausape.^[4][8]

In medieval Latin it meant a tablecloth and an altar cloth;^[9][10] British sources also use it of a napkin and perhaps a towel.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a cloth for wiping tables.^[4][3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace has a purple gausape wiping the table.^[8][3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses the plural of frieze clothes.^[4][3][6]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of a shaggy beard.^[4][8][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has someone wrapped in scarlet gausapa.^[4][3][6]
• 1250 – An English account lists a very old gausape among household goods.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Frieze, a thick woollen cloth with a shaggy nap on one side; a piece of it used as a tablecloth or wiping cloth.^[2][3][8]
2. A cloak or garment of frieze.^[2][4]
3. (figurative) A shaggy beard.^[4][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A tablecloth; an altar cloth; a napkin.^[9][10]

Word family

• gausapātus
• gausapinus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press