novacula

Forms

novācula f (genitive novāculae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *(ks)nowātlo-.^[2] De Vaan explains it as an instrument noun ⟨*sneu̯āklo-⟩, from older ⟨*ksneu̯āklo-⟩, built on a verb stem ⟨*(ks)neu̯ā-⟩, itself derived from Proto-Indo-European *ksneu- (“to scrape smooth, sharpen”).^[2] He takes the nasal present ⟨*ks-n-u-⟩ to belong to *kseu- (“to scrape, make smooth”), the root of saucius, and both perhaps to a root *kes- (“to scratch”).^[2] The OLD likewise derives it from a verb ⟨*novō⟩ with the suffix -cula, tracing the verb to the same Indo-European base,^[3] and Köbler gives the same root;^[4] Lewis and Short connected it with novō “renew”.^[5]

Cognate with Sanskrit क्ष्णोत्र (kṣṇótra-, “whetstone”) and Sanskrit क्षुर (kṣurá-, “razor, sharp knife”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Cicero on;^[2][4] the De divinatione tells of a whetstone that could be cut with a razor (cotem novacula posse praecidi).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its usual sense is a razor, used for shaving bald patches in Celsus, and in Martial and Petronius, whose characters infer from a razor that a man is a barber.^[3][5] Tacitus and Suetonius mention throats cut with a razor.^[3][5] More generally it is a sharp knife: Columella has the skin of turnips peeled with one, and Pliny the Elder amber knives.^[3][5] Pliny also gives it as the name of an unknown fish.^[3] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means a sharp knife or razor.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero's De divinatione tells of a whetstone cut with a razor.^[3][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy also uses it.^[3][4]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of peeling turnips.^[3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it as the name of a fish.^[3][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of a throat cut with a razor.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A razor.^[3][5]
2. A sharp knife.^[5][6]
3. An unknown fish.^[3]

Related words

• saucius

References

1. ^ a b c 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 n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson