monedula

Forms

monēdula f (genitive monēdulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OLD compares ficēdula (“fig-pecker”), a bird name with the same ending.^[2] The ancients took it as “money-eater”, from monēta (“money”) and edō¹ (“to eat”), because of the bird's greed for gold;^[3] Niedermann accepted this derivation, but the TLL doubts it,^[3] and Wiktionary dismisses it as a folk etymology.^[1] Köbler likewise sees Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”) in the second part and calls the first part of unknown origin.^[4]

Plautus also has the form ⟨monērula⟩,^[2][5] which Wiktionary explains by an Umbrian sound change.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[4] in the older form monērula: in the Captivi jackdaws are among the birds given to the sons of patricians as pets to play with, and in the Asinaria the word is used as a term of endearment.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The jackdaw was known as a thief of gold and silver.^[2][6] Cicero says that one would not trust gold to someone non plus … quam monedulae, “no more than to a jackdaw”, and Pliny the Elder calls it the only bird with a strange passion for stealing gold and silver.^[2][6][3] In Ovid's Metamorphoses Arne, who had taken gold, is turned into the jackdaw, “which still loves gold”.^[2][3] Isidore of Seville explained the name as if it were monetula, from the bird's habit of carrying off and hiding any gold it finds.^[7][3]

Medieval Latin kept the word for the jackdaw or chough:^[8] Ælfric's glossary gives Old English ceo for it, and Osbern of Gloucester calls it a bird also named cava.^[8] Köbler lists Old High German glosses such as kaha and taha.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses the form monērula for the bird and as a pet name.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero cites the jackdaw as proverbial for stealing gold.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–AD 18 – Ovid tells of Arne turned into a jackdaw.^[2][6][4]
• AD 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder describes its thieving of gold and silver and its hiding of seeds.^[3][4]
• c. 560–636 – Isidore of Seville derives the name from gold-stealing, as if monetula.^[7][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jackdaw, a bird noted for stealing.^[2][6][9]
2. A term of endearment.^[2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A jackdaw or chough.^[8]

Usage notes

The phrase non plus aurum alicui quam monedulae committere, “to trust someone with gold no more than a jackdaw”, was proverbial.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.