mucro

Forms

mūcrō m (genitive mūcrōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It may be inherited from Proto-Italic *m(e/o)uk-ro-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(h₂)muḱ-ro-, but de Vaan is not sure.^[2] He compares Ancient Greek ἀμύσσω (amússō, “to scratch, tear”), ἀμυχή (amukhḗ, “rent, wound”) and Hesychius' ἀμυκάλαι (amukálai, “arrow tips”);^[2][3][4] Lithuanian mùšti (“to beat”) may belong here but means “beat”, not “scratch”.^[2][4] The length of the vowel is disputed: it is long in early Latin poetry, which suggests ⟨mū-⟩.^[2] Wiktionary takes it as an n-stem made from a lost adjective meaning “pointed, sharp”.^[1]

Isidore of Seville derived it from Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”), for its length.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,^[2] who has a fighter who “turns the sword's point”;^[3] Lucilius has it as the point of a sword.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is the sharp end of a sword, and by extension the sword itself in action, as in Ennius.^[3][5][1] It is also the point of other implements, as the point of a vine-dresser's knife in Columella, the edge of a knife in Juvenal, and any tapering tip, as the tips of shells and of leaves in Pliny the Elder.^[3][5] Lewis and Short compare it with aciēs and cuspis,^[5] and Döderlein separates aciēs, the sharpness of a cutting edge, from acūmen, a point for piercing.^[6]

Church Latin glosses it “point, sharp edge”.^[7] Köbler finds it in the Bible, the glosses and medieval saints' lives.^[8]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of a sword's point in action.^[3][8]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of the point of a sword.^[3][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella of the point of a pruning knife.^[3][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the tips of shells.^[3][8]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it from Greek “long”.^[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sharp point of a sword;^[3][5][1][7] (by extension) a sword.^[3][1]
2. The point or edge of other implements.^[3][5][1]
3. A tapering projection, a tip.^[3][5]

Word family

• mūcrōnātus

Related words

• aciēs
• cuspis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de