geniculum

Forms

geniculum n (genitive geniculī); second declension^[1] The spelling genuculum is found in manuscripts of later authors,^[2] and Medieval Latin also has jeniculum and geniclum.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin genū (“knee”) + -culum, a diminutive.^[4][2][1] The base goes back to Proto-Italic *genū and Proto-Indo-European *ǵen-u- (“knee”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro (116–27 BC)^[6] is the first to use it, in De lingua Latina, of the small knees of children, to which splints were tied to straighten crooked legs.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder applied it to the knots or joints in the stems of plants such as the reed.^[4][7] In the sense “knee” it is mainly ante- and post-classical:^[7] Tertullian speaks of praying on one's knees (de geniculis), and the Vulgate's Nahum has the knees giving way in fear.^[7]

Medieval Latin used it for the knee itself, with no sense of smallness, and also for a degree of kinship.^[3] Manuscripts of later authors often spell it genuculum.^[2] English geniculate (1660s) comes from the derived adjective geniculātus.^[8]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro writes of children's knees.^[4][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the joints of plant stems.^[4][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of praying on one's knees.^[7][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in Nahum.^[7][6]
• 1660s – English forms geniculate from geniculātus.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small knee; a knee.^[4][7][9]
2. A knot or joint in the stem of a plant.^[4][7]
3. (Medieval Latin) A degree of kinship.^[3]

Word family

• geniculātus
• geniculosus
• tardigenuclus
• aggeniculor
• geniculātim
• geniculō
• ingeniculō

Related words

• English knuckle

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University 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 c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson