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laterculus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word laterculus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 250–184 BC, Plautus
Ultimate origin
Latin later
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin later
Latin laterculus
From the same root
Latin latericius ← later

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɫaˈtɛr.kʊ.ɫʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [laˈtɛr.ku.lus][1]

Forms

laterculus m (genitive laterculī); second declension[1] Caesar has the form latericulus.[2][3] A neuter laterculum is also found.[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin later (“brick, tile”) + -culus, a diminutive.[2][1][4] De Vaan suggests that later may be related to latus2 (“side”), if its first meaning was “piece, part”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL first find it in Plautus,[5][4] who in the Poenulus uses it of a kind of cake or pastry.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Cato gives a recipe in which a mass is shaped into blocks and baked in a furnace, and also uses it for a pastry;[2][6] the cake was named for its shape like a tile.[1] As “small brick, tile” it is used by Caesar, Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder,[2][3] who speaks of a shrine of unbaked bricks and of observations of the stars inscribed on baked tiles.[3][6] Quintus Curtius uses the singular for brickwork.[7] The land surveyors used it for a square plot of land,[2][6] and Jerome for a counting board.[7]

In medieval British sources it is still a small tile, and, because of its shape, a register, list or table, a number, and a reckoning or calculated period;[8] Aldhelm uses it of verse feet counted in fours.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a cake.[6][9]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of blocks baked in a furnace and of a pastry.[2][6][9]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of small bricks laid over a timber floor.[3][9]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions astronomical records on baked tiles.[3][9]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it for a reckoning of metrical feet.[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small brick or tile;[2][3][7] (singular) brickwork.[2][3][7]
  2. A brick-shaped block; a hard cake or biscuit.[2][3]
  3. (surveying) A square plot of land.[2][6]
  4. (Late Latin) A counting board, abacus.[7]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A register, list or table; a reckoning.[8]

Usage notes

The TLL has a second laterculus, a name of the plant henbane, altered from alterculum.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d 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 f g Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Laterculus.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/laterculus. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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