molinus

Forms

molīnus (feminine molīna, neuter molīnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mola (“millstone, mill”) + -īnus,^[2][3] although Wiktionary forms it from molō (“to grind”) instead.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is Tertullian, who speaks of a millstone, molino saxo, tied to a person's neck.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a rare word of Christian Latin,^[2][1] meaning “belonging to a mill”.^[5] Its feminine and neuter, molīna and molīnum, were used as nouns for the mill itself.^[2] Medieval texts still use the adjective, of a donkey that works a mill and of a mill house.^[6] Manuscripts often spell it mul-.^[3]

The Romance words for “mill” go back to it: Sardinian molinu, Italian mulino, Spanish molino, Portuguese moinho and French moulin.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian writes of a millstone, molinum saxum.^[3][2][4]
• c. 1170–1190 – A cartulary speaks of a domus molina, a mill house.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Late Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin) Of or belonging to a mill: saxum molīnum, a millstone.^[2][3][5]

Related words

• mola
• molo

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT