iaculum

Forms

iaculum n (genitive iaculī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled jaculum.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from iaciō (“to throw”) with the instrument suffix -ulum, “a thing for throwing”.^[3][4][1] Varro says it is made to be thrown.^[4] De Vaan derives ⟨iaciō⟩ from Proto-Italic *jak-i- (“to throw”) and Proto-Indo-European *(H)ieh₁- (“to throw, let go”), cognate with Ancient Greek ἵημι (híēmi, “to send, throw”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Ennius as its first author;^[6] Sisenna has men who used up their javelins quickly and turned to swords.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a throwing spear or javelin, as Cicero's “you will not see the sun for the mass of javelins and arrows”.^[3][2][1] It is any other missile, as Apuleius' showers of flowers thrown to please the goddess, and in Ovid apparently a casting net: “here fish are caught with the net, there with hooks”.^[3][1] Wiktionary adds the net of the rētiārius.^[1]

Church Latin glosses it “arrow, dart, javelin”, and Medieval Latin “arrow”.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius.^[6]
• 120–67 BC – Sisenna of javelins used up.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a hail of javelins.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a casting net.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A javelin, dart.^[3][2][1][7]
2. A missile;^[3] an arrow.^[7][8]
3. A casting net.^[3][1]

Word family

• iaculor

Related words

• iaciō
• iaculus
• hasta
• tēlum
• pīlum

Usage notes

Döderlein gives missile as the most general word for any weapon used at a distance, from the spear to the arrow.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper