gleba

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈɡɫeː.ba]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɡlɛː.ba]^[1]

Forms

glēba f (genitive glēbae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The OLD compares Old High German klāftra (“fathom”), Old English clyppan (“to embrace”), Lithuanian glóbti (“to embrace”) and globus.^[2][3] Köbler traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gelebʰ- (“to clump together”).^[4] It is also spelled ⟨glaeba⟩.^[2][3] Isidore says a ⟨glēba⟩ is a ⟨globus⟩, earth packed into one ball, and loose earth is dust.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gaffiot's earliest citations are from Accius and Cato, of a clod.^[6] Köbler dates Accius 170–c. 90 BC and Cato 234–149 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant a lump of earth, a clod, as in Cato and Cicero's glēbīs aut saxīs agere “to drive off with clods or stones”, and in Virgil cultivated soil, land.^[2][6] In Vitruvius it meant a lump of other substances.^[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a clod.^[7] Medieval Latin used it for soil, a farm, church land, a glebe, and a corpse.^[8] British Medieval Latin also used it for a chip of stone and a clot.^[9] Etymonline relates it, as the source of English glebe, to globus and English globe.^[10]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it.^[6][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a clod.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of tilled land.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clod; tilled soil, land.^[2]
2. A lump.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A farm; church land, glebe; a corpse.^[8]

Word family

• glēbārius
• glēbōsus
• glēbula
• glēbulentus

Related words

• globus
• glomus
• English glebe

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com