Etymologically
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merula

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈmɛ.rʊ.ɫa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈmɛː.ru.la][1]

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
  • 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).