merula

Forms

merula f (genitive merulae); first declension^[1] A masculine merulus, -ī appears in a fragment of Suetonius and in later Latin.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *mesVlā- (“blackbird”).^[4][2] It is cognate with the British Celtic words for the blackbird, Welsh mwyalch and Breton moualc'h, and, with a different shape of the stem, with Old High German amsla and Old English ōsle.^[4][2] Because the Latin and British forms and the Germanic ones cannot be reconciled, Schrijver takes it as a loanword from a non-Indo-European substrate language of Europe.^[4] Wiktionary likewise mentions Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black, blackbird”) as a northwestern European substrate word,^[1] and Köbler calls the origin unclear, perhaps from Pokorny's *ames- (“blackbird”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Naevius,^[4][5] in a comedy fragment that speaks of a blackbird with a beak the colour of sandarach (merula sanderacino ore).^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is the blackbird,^[2][3] and by likeness of colour also a dark sea fish, the wrasse, which Ennius already names.^[2][1] Pliny the Elder describes the bird several times.^[3]

In Medieval Latin, alone or as merulus and merulium, it also meant a crenel of a wall.^[6] English took the bird's name from Latin as merule in the late 14th century, and later as merle through Old French.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it for the blackbird.^[4][2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for a fish, the wrasse.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian quotes the etymology mera volans.^[3][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it from the bird's modulating song.^[8][5]
• late 14th century – Middle English borrows it as merule.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blackbird.^[2][3]
2. A dark-coloured sea fish, the wrasse.^[2][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A crenel, a battlement.^[6]

Word family

• meruleus

Related words

• English merle
• English ouzel

Usage notes

Ancient writers explained the name from mera volans, “flying alone”, an etymology Quintilian quotes;^[3] Isidore of Seville adds that it was anciently called medula, from its “modulating” song.^[8] Merula was also a Roman cognomen, borne for example by Lucius Cornelius Merula, flamen of Jupiter, whom Velleius Paterculus mentions,^[3][1] and the name of a river in Liguria.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e 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 d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).