Etymologically
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hirpex

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Forms

hirpex m (genitive hirpicis); third declension[1] Also spelled ⟨irpex⟩, the head form of the OLD and Lewis & Short.[2][3][1] The manuscripts of Cato have ⟨urpex⟩, which the TLL takes for a corruption.[4][5] Medieval British sources spell it ⟨herpex⟩, ⟨harpex⟩, ⟨erpica⟩, ⟨herpica⟩ and ⟨harpica⟩.[6][7]

Etymology

It is apparently from Latin hirpus (“wolf”), a Sabine word, the harrow being named after a wolf's teeth.[2][1][8] Etymonline gives the same explanation and adds that the word for the wolf may instead be related to hirsūtus (“shaggy, bristly”).[9] Walde preferred to see in it a tool for plucking out weeds, related to rapiō (“to snatch”), with ⟨i⟩ from ⟨e⟩ by assimilation, and judged the wolf explanation less likely.[10]

Varro explains the ⟨irpicēs⟩ as a toothed board, drawn by oxen like a wagon, which pulls up what creeps in the ground, and says some people once called them ⟨sirpicēs⟩.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato is the first to name it, in a list of farm tools.[5][8][7]

Semantic evolution

Varro describes it as a board set with many teeth and drawn by oxen,[5][4] and Festus, in Paulus' epitome, as a kind of iron rake with many teeth for rooting weeds out of the fields.[5] Servius says that the farmers' word for the crātēs used to level the fields was irpex.[5][3] The Lex Salica deals with anyone who drags a harrow through another man's crop.[5]

The word lived on in Medieval Latin: an early English glossary renders it with Old English egeþe, “harrow”,[6][7] and 14th- and 15th-century English accounts, inventories and wills list herpicēs and harpicae beside ploughs.[6] Köbler also records the medieval sense of a candlestick shaped like a harrow.[7] It survives in Italian erpice and Romansh erpch,[1][5][3] and through Medieval Latin hercia in French herse and English hearse.[9][5]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato lists it among farm tools.[5][7]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro describes the toothed board drawn by oxen.[5][7]
  • c. 400 AD – Servius equates the farmers' irpex with the crātēs of Virgil.[5][7]
  • 507–511 – The Lex Salica deals with dragging a harrow through another man's crop.[5][7]
  • 1352 – English accounts record the purchase of two new harrows.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A harrow, a toothed frame drawn by oxen.[2][3][5]
  2. A large iron rake for rooting out weeds.[5][4][8]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A candlestick in the shape of a harrow.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  8. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Walde, Alois (1906), Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter