manducus

Forms

mandūcus m (genitive mandūcī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mandō² (“to chew”) + -ūcus,^[1] the ending being the same as in cadūcus, from cadō.^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb.^[4] Varro already connected it with chewing.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus' Rudens, where a character with chattering teeth asks whether he should hire himself out at the games as a mandūcus.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was a masked figure with champing jaws in the Atellan farces;^[2] Paulus' epitome of Festus describes its effigy, carried in old processions among other comic and frightening figures, as having huge jaws, a wide gape and loudly clattering teeth.^[2][6] Lewis & Short also give the sense “glutton” from Pomponius.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus names it in the Rudens.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro mentions it in connection with the verb for chewing.^[2][3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A masked figure with champing jaws in the Atellan farces and in processions.^[2][6]
2. A glutton.^[6]

Word family

• mandūcō

Usage notes

It is not the same word as mandūcō “glutton”, a noun of the third declension found in Pomponius and Apuleius.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press