lenticula

Forms

lenticula f (genitive lenticulae); first declension^[1] The spelling lenticla appears in Diocletian's edict and often in manuscripts.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin lēns² (“lentil”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[3][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Celsus is its first author:^[4] he names lentils beside beans, calls lentil-shaped clay vessels lenticulae, and uses it for freckles.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word meant the lentil plant and its seed, and by likeness a lentil shape (in Pliny the Elder, of the shape of a gem), a small vessel of that shape, and a freckle.^[3][5] Palladius uses it of sowing lentils.^[5] In Christian and medieval Latin the vessel sense became a small flask or jar.^[6][7]

It lives on in the Romance words for the lentil: Italian lenticchia, French lentille, Spanish lenteja and Portuguese lentilha.^[1]

Timeline

• 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for the lentil, a lentil-shaped vessel and a freckle.^[5][3][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella lists it among the legumes.^[3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a lentil-shaped gem.^[3][5][4]
• end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century AD – Palladius gives the month for sowing lentils.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lentil plant; its seed, a lentil.^[3][5][1]
2. A lentil shape, a convex figure.^[3]
3. A small lentil-shaped vessel;^[3][6][7] (Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin) a small flask, a jar.^[3][6][7]
4. A freckle.^[3][1]

Word family

• lenticulāris

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill