ilia

Forms

īlia n pl (genitive īlium); third declension^[1][2] Lewis & Short list it under a singular īle.^[3] Singular forms are rare and partly conjectural.^[1]

Etymology

De Vaan finds no etymology: the Germanic words that Walde and Hofmann compared have a short vowel, and the Greek ἴλια (ília) “female parts”, a gloss of Hesychius, may be a borrowing from Latin.^[2][1] Köbler cites Pokorny's Proto-Indo-European *īli-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Catullus,^[2][4] who has a lover bursting the loins of all.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It is the side of the body from the hips to the groin, the flanks.^[1][2] In medicine Celsus places it between the hips and the pubes at the bottom of the belly.^[1] It is used especially of the groin or private parts, as in Catullus.^[1] As a cut of meat it is the flank: Horace has the untasted flanks of a turbot and Martial those of a boar.^[1] It is also the guts: Horace exclaims at the tough guts of reapers.^[1]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a lover's loins.^[1][2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of a turbot's flanks and of reapers' guts.^[1][4]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus in medicine.^[1][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) The side of the body from the hips to the groin, the flanks; the groin.^[1][2]
2. The flank as a cut of meat.^[1]
3. The guts, entrails.^[1]

Usage notes

Īlia is also a poetic name of the mother of Romulus and Remus, Rhea Silvia, from Ennius on.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de