Etymologically
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paenula

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpae̯.nʊ.ɫa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.nu.la][1]

Forms

paenula f (genitive paenulae); first declension[1] It is also spelt pēnula.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek φαινόλη (phainólē, “cloak”);[1] the OLD and Köbler give the Greek form as ⟨phainólēs⟩.[4][5] The TLL notes that it is closest to a Doric form in ⟨-a⟩ used by Rhinthon of Syracuse, and that the lack of aspiration in Latin shows it was borrowed early.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL records it in poetry from Plautus on,[3][5] who has lībertās paenulast tergō tuō, “freedom is a cloak for your back”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It was a close-fitting, hooded woollen cloak, worn on journeys and in the city in rainy weather;[4][2] the TLL finds it mostly in everyday language,[3] in Lucilius and Pomponius and in the prose of Cicero, Vitruvius and Seneca.[3][4] Cicero has the proverb paenulam scindere, “to tear someone's cloak”, of pressing someone to stay,[2] and Tacitus says that orators wore it.[2] By extension it is a cover or protection,[2] and Vitruvius uses it of the hood of a water pump.[4][2] It appears in the Second Epistle to Timothy in the Vulgate,[2] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means a chasuble.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it figuratively.[3][2][5]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius mentions a cloak.[4][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in speeches and letters.[3][2][5]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of part of a pump.[4][5]
  • 390–406 AD – It appears in the Vulgate.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A close-fitting hooded cloak of weatherproof material, worn for travel or rain.[4][2]
  2. A covering, cover, protection.[2]
  3. A cowl on a water pump.[4][2]
  4. A moulding on a portico, perhaps a hood mould.[4]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A chasuble.[6]

Word family

  • paenulārius
  • paenulātus
  • paenulum
  • paenuleus

Usage notes

Paenula was also a Roman surname.[2] Lewis & Short compare the cloaks laena and lacerna.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson