Etymologically
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helcium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈhɛɫ.ki.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛl̠ʲ.t͡ʃi.um][1]

Forms

helcium n (genitive helciī or helcī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἑλκίον (helkíon, “yoke”),[1][2] from ἕλκω (hélkō, “to draw, drag”),[3][4] which Köbler traces to Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to pull”).[4] The OLD only compares the Greek verb.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Apuleius,[4] in the Metamorphoses, where the narrator, an ass, is freed from a machine when the rope harness is taken off: helcio sparteo dimoto.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries define it differently: the OLD as a rope for towing or hauling, Lewis & Short and Georges as a yoke or horse collar, and the TLL as a drawing strap.[5][2][7][6] It reappears in a 16th-century Polish glossary, glossed with Polish chomąto (“horse collar”).[8]

Wiktionary lists Italian alzaia and Old French halcier, the source of English hawser, among its descendants,[1] while Etymonline derives the Old French word from Late Latin altāre (“to make high”).[9]

Timeline

  • c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it twice, of an ass's harness.[6][5][4]
  • 16th century – A Polish glossary glosses it as chomąto.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A rope for towing or hauling, a drawing strap.[5][6][10]
  2. A yoke, horse collar.[2][7][11]

Word family

  • helcia

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  11. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.