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navicula

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word navicula

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
2nd half of the 2nd century BC, Afranius
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*neh₂-u-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin navis
Latin navicula

Forms

nāvicula f (genitive nāviculae); first declension[1][2] The contracted forms naucula and naucla also occur, in an inscription and in manuscripts of Pliny the Younger.[1][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin nāvis (“ship”) + -cula, a diminutive.[1][3][4] De Vaan traces nāvis to Proto-Italic *nau- and Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), probably “the floating one”, from a verb meaning “to swim”.[5] Cognate with Sanskrit नौ (náu-, “ship”), Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”) and Old Irish náu (“ship”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Afranius.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a small ship, a boat or skiff:[1][2] Cicero writes “we went down to our boats”, and Caesar also uses it.[2] Church Latin has it as a little boat.[6] In medieval texts it is also the incense boat, the vessel that holds incense in church.[7]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius.[2][5][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of going down to the boats.[2][4]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar.[2][4]
  • Medieval Latin – An incense boat.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small ship, boat, skiff.[1][2][6]
  2. (Medieval Latin) An incense boat.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
Cite this entry

“Navicula.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/navicula. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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