muliercula

Forms

muliercula f (genitive mulierculae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin mulier (“woman”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] De Vaan shows from muliebris that mulier was originally an s-stem; the older view takes it as a comparative of the stem of mollis (“soft”), and Klingenschmitt as a comparative “the better one, chief wife” to melior, but de Vaan finds both difficult.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] and the TLL notes that in poetry it is found in Plautus and Terence.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a little, weak or foolish woman, often contemptuous.^[2][6] Lucretius uses it,^[6] and Cicero has a man who said he enjoyed the murmur of a girl carrying water, a working woman.^[6][1] In the Vulgate the “silly women laden with sins” of the Second Letter to Timothy are mulierculae, and Church Latin glosses it “disgraceful woman, common woman”.^[7][8] Medieval writers also use it for a poor woman, as Aldhelm does.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a working woman carrying water.^[6][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of foolish women in the Letter to Timothy.^[7][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A little, weak or foolish woman; a mere woman.^[2][6][1]
2. A common working woman.^[6][1]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A disreputable woman.^[8]

Word family

• mulierculārius

Related words

• mulier

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson