hastile

Forms

hastīle n (genitive hastīlis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled astīle.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin hasta (“spear”) + -īle.^[3][1] De Vaan thinks hasta, from Proto-Italic *χastā-, probably not of Indo-European origin but a loanword shared with Celtic and Germanic, as Middle Irish gat (“osier, withe”) and Old High German gart (“goad”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus.^[4] In the OLD's earliest quotation for the spear, Ennius writes that a shield's boss rings with spears.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the shaft of a spear or javelin: Cicero has a man leaning on a spear shaft, and Livy a missile with a shaft of fir.^[3][2] In verse it is the spear itself.^[3] It is also any spear-like stem, rod or cane: Virgil tells the vine grower to fit shafts of peeled rods and ash stakes.^[3] Lewis & Short note the spelling ⟨astīle⟩.^[2] Church Latin uses it of a staff, and of the staff of a processional cross.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of spears ringing on a shield.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a spear shaft.^[3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of rods for vines.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The shaft of a spear or javelin.^[3][2][1][6]
2. In verse, a spear, javelin.^[3][2][1]
3. A spear-like stem, rod, cane, pole.^[3][1]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A staff; the staff of a processional cross.^[6]

Word family

• hastīliārius

Related words

• hasta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson