Etymologically
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lapillus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaˈpɪl.lʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈpil.lus][1]

Forms

lapillus m (genitive lapillī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin lapis (“stone”) + -lus, a diminutive.[2][1][3] Wiktionary thinks it was probably formed on the stem ⟨lapid-⟩.[1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *la/eped- for lapis and compares Umbrian vapeře (“stone seat”) and Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “bare rock”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Catullus, the Bellum Africum, Varro and Virgil on;[3] Köbler dates it from Varro,[5] who writes of water in which shards or pebbles lie.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a small stone or pebble, as Ovid's stream that invites sleep with its rattling pebbles.[2][6] Pebbles had special uses: as sling shot, as in the Bellum Africum, as counters in games and in voting, and to mark days, white for lucky and black for unlucky.[2][6] It is also an ornamental or precious stone, a gem, as Horace's Libyan marble.[2] Pliny the Elder uses it of a stony lump in plants or animals, especially a stone in the bladder.[2][1] Church Latin glosses it gem,[7] and Wiktionary also gives a tombstone.[1] It lives on in southern Italian dialects, as Neapolitan rapello and Sicilian ripiddu.[3]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of pebbles in water.[2][5]
  • 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses the word.[3][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of Libyan marble.[2][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of stony lumps in plants.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small stone, pebble; a sling stone, counter or voting pebble.[2][6][1]
  2. A gem, precious stone; marble.[2][1][7]
  3. A stone in the body, especially in the bladder, calculus.[2][1]
  4. A tombstone.[1]

Word family

  • lapillīscō
  • lapillulus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson