iugulum

Forms

iugulum n (genitive iugulī); second declension^[1] A masculine iugulus, -ī is frequent in Lucan and occurs in Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger and Juvenal.^[2][3] The Appendix Probi has “iugulus non iuglus”.^[4]

Etymology

The OLD forms it from iugum (“yoke”) with the suffix -ulum.^[2][1] De Vaan, who treats it under iungō (“to join”), takes it as probably a “small yoke”, a connecting part, hence the throat;^[5] Lewis and Short likewise explain it as the collarbone that joins the shoulders and the breast.^[3] The TLL takes it as a noun from the verb, ⟨*iug-elo-⟩ “what connects”.^[4] ⟨iugum⟩ goes back to Proto-Indo-European *(H)iugo- (“yoke”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus;^[6] the OLD's earliest citation is from Accius, of people covering the breast from the throat down with vine leaves.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Anatomically it is the collarbone in Celsus and Pliny the Elder, but more often the hollow of the neck above it, the throat.^[2][3] As the place where a weapon kills, iugulum dare is to offer one's throat to the sword, and Virgil has blood let from the throats of victims.^[2] Lucan and Martial use it for the cutting of a throat, slaughter: “this throat will bring peace and the end of evils”.^[2] Wiktionary also gives a figurative sense, the crucial point of an argument.^[1]

Church Latin has it for the throat,^[7] and Medieval Latin for murder, the cutting of a throat.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of the throat.^[2][6]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus of the collarbone.^[2][6]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan of slaughter, with the masculine iugulus.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The collarbone, clavicle.^[2][3][1]
2. The front of the neck above the collarbone, the throat;^[2][3][1][7] iugulum dare, to offer one's throat to the sword.^[2][3][1][7]
3. The cutting of a throat, slaughter, sacrifice.^[2][1][8]
4. (figurative) The crucial point of an argument.^[1]

Word family

• iugulō

Related words

• iugulātiō
• iugulātor
• iugum
• iungō

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 e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b 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