morticinus

Forms

morticīnus (feminine morticīna, neuter morticīnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mors (“death”);^[2][3][4] Wiktionary derives it from mortuus (“dead”).^[1] The OLD suggests that the ending was modelled on adjectives such as porcīnus and hircīnus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Persa, as a term of abuse, “you carrion”.^[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Its proper sense, used only of animals, is “that has died a natural death, not slaughtered”, said of the beast or its flesh, as of a dead sheep in Varro.^[2][5] Varro also notes that nothing morticinum should be present at sacred rites.^[5] Pliny the Elder applies it to corns on the feet, made of dead tissue, which people commonly called morticini.^[2]

In the Vulgate the neuter plural morticīna means carcasses, carrion,^[5] and later writers used it more widely for “dead”: Seneca speaks of dead flesh, and Servius of shoes made from the hide of an animal that died of itself.^[5][6] The word lives on in Italian morticina and Spanish mortecino.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it as an insult.^[5][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of animals that died naturally.^[5][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca speaks of dead flesh.^[6][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for corns on the feet.^[2][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses the neuter plural for carcasses.^[5][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of an animal) That has died a natural death, not slaughtered; of such an animal or its flesh, carrion.^[2][5]
2. (transferred) Made of dead tissue: morticīnī clāvī, corns on the feet.^[2][5]
3. (as a term of abuse) Carrion!^[5][6]

Noun

1. morticīnum, (Late Latin) A dead body, a carcass.^[7][5]

Usage notes

Köbler records a Plautine noun morticīnus as an insult for a person.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b 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 d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn