mitulus

Forms

mītulus m (genitive mītulī); second declension^[1] Also spelled mūtulus (in Cato), mȳtilus, mitillus and metulus.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The OLD calls its origin unknown.^[5] Köbler takes it as borrowed from Ancient Greek μυτίλος (mutílos, “a kind of mussel”), a word of unclear origin,^[4] and Lewis & Short equate it with μύτυλος (mútulos).^[6] Wiktionary connects it with Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs, “mouse; mussel”), and the TLL cites Saint-Denis for a comparison with the shellfish names mys, myax and myiscus.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cato, whose text of On Agriculture has the spelling ⟨mutulus⟩.^[6][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Horace, Pliny the Elder and Martial use it of an edible sea mussel; the TLL identifies it as the common mussel, Mytilus edulis.^[2][3][6] Pliny writes that these mussels grow of their own accord in sandy places, and counts them as one of two kinds of myaces, the kind with a salty, rank taste.^[2] An ancient commentator on Horace describes them as a kind of black shell.^[2]

The TLL, citing Rohlfs, traces Italian nicchio “shell” and Portuguese ameija to it.^[2] John Caius calls horse mussels mytulī caballīnī.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it, spelled ⟨mutulus⟩.^[6][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it.^[6][3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes where mussels grow.^[2][4]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of edible mussel, probably the common mussel.^[5][6][2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press