medulla

Forms

medulla f (genitive medullae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] It may be inherited from Proto-Italic *(s)meru-lo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *smer-u- (“marrow”), the source de Vaan prefers: it fits the meaning best but needs a change of /r/ to /d/, the opposite of what one would expect; he suggests it could be a hypercorrection.^[3] Cognates would be Old Irish smiur (“marrow”), Welsh mer (“marrow”) and Old English smeoru (“fat”);^[3][2][4] Thurneysen, in the TLL, set up an original ⟨*merulla⟩.^[5] Lewis and Short, and others before them, derived it from medius (“middle”).^[6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] who has “I am done for, weariness has soaked into my marrow” in the Stichus;^[2] Ennius has “the marrow of Persuasion”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the marrow of the bones, usually in the plural, as Varro's dogs made fiercer by the taste of marrow, and similar soft substances.^[2][6] Figuratively it is one's inmost part or vitals, as in Plautus, and the depths of the mind and heart, as Cicero's men who clung to the marrow and heart of the Roman people.^[2][1] It is the pith of a plant, as Cato's vine split through the pith, the kernel of a nut, as in Petronius, the inner part of anything, as Catullus' heart of the mountain, and the essence or quintessence, as in Ennius.^[2][6]

Church Latin glosses it “marrow, finest part”.^[8] English took it in the 1670s for the hindmost part of the brain.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of weariness in the marrow.^[2][7]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the “marrow of Persuasion”.^[2][7]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of the pith of a vine.^[2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the heart of the Roman people.^[2][7]
• 1670s – Borrowed into English as medulla.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The marrow of the bones.^[2][6][1][8]
2. One's inmost part; the depths of the mind or heart.^[2][1]
3. The pith of a plant; the kernel of a nut.^[2][6]
4. The inner part, interior.^[2]
5. The essence, quintessence, finest part.^[2][8]

Word family

• medullāris
• medullitus
• medullo
• medullōsus
• medullula

Related words

• medius
• English medulla

References

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