malacus

Forms

malacus (feminine malaca, neuter malacum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft, gentle”).^[2][3][1][4] Köbler connects the Greek word with the Indo-European root *mel- (“to grind, crush”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in a tragedy of Naevius, describing soft women's clothing (pallis patagiis crocotis malacis).^[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a word of early Latin, above all of Plautus: he speaks of a soft, warm cloak (pallium malacum et calidum) and of Greek sweating ointments that could be soft or emollient.^[2][3] Transferred to people and their habits, it meant soft, delicate or luxurious: Ennius has men going “soft” to fetch the wreath of Venus, and Plautus a man who is supple at dancing.^[2][3][6] The TLL also records it on an inscription from Africa dated AD 202.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of soft garments in a tragedy.^[2][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of a soft cloak and of a man supple at dancing.^[3][4]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of soft, luxurious men.^[2][4]
• AD 202 – An African inscription uses the word.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Soft, pliant, supple.^[2][3]
2. Perhaps emollient, softening (of ointments).^[2]
3. Delicate, luxurious, voluptuous.^[2][3][6]

Related words

• malacia
• malacissō
• malacissō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier