munusculum

Forms

mūnusculum n (genitive mūnusculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a diminutive, from Latin mūnus (“duty, gift”) + -culum.^[1][2] De Vaan traces mūnus to Proto-Italic *moinos- (“duty, obligation, task”) and tentatively to Proto-Indo-European *h₂moi-no- (“exchange”), comparing Oscan múíníkú (“common”) and Old Irish móin (“value, treasure”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the TLL date it from Plautus.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It is a small gift or favour.^[1] Cicero speaks of sending a friend a slight little present, and Caelius, writing to him, of a favour offered to an accuser.^[4] Virgil has ⟨prīma mūnuscula⟩, first little gifts, and Juvenal little gifts not demanded.^[4] Glosses explain it as a small gift.^[2] Lewis & Short call it classical.^[4] Church Latin glosses it a little gift.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[3][2][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus.^[6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a slight present.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of first little gifts.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small gift, little present; a small favour.^[1][4][5]

Related words

• mūnus

References

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