Etymologically
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hastile

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [hasˈtiː.ɫɛ][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [asˈtiː.le][1]

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

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