hirnea

Forms

hirnea f (genitive hirneae); first declension^[1] Also spelled irnea.^[2][3] The grammarian Diomedes has hirnia.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][5] The TLL compares erneum (“a kind of cake”), the cake Cato bakes in such a vessel, and suggests that the ⟨i⟩ points to a dialect form;^[6] Wiktionary also links it with that word and calls further connections uncertain.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus' Amphitruo, where a speaker tells how he filled a hirnea from a cask of wine and drank off a jug of neat wine.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides Plautus' drinking jug, Cato's recipe for erneum uses an earthenware hirnea as a baking mould, which is broken once the cake is cooked.^[6][4] The grammarian Nonius explains it as a wine vessel.^[6] The TLL records the diminutives hirnela and hirniola.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a wine jug.^[6][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of an earthenware baking vessel.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jug for wine or other liquids.^[2][3]
2. An earthenware vessel used as a baking mould.^[4][6]

Usage notes

The OLD files the word for a rupture, usually spelled hernia, as hirnea¹, comparing haruspex, and puts the jug second.^[2] The TLL treats that hirnea as a spelling of hernia,^[6] which Conte cites from Celsus and Juvenal.^[7] Medieval British writers used hirnea for a scrotal hernia.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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