parvulus

Forms

parvulus (feminine parvula, neuter parvulum, adverb parvulum); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled parvolus,^[2][3] as in the oldest manuscript of Plautus.^[4]

Etymology

It is a diminutive of parvus (“small”), formed with -ulus.^[2][4][1] De Vaan traces ⟨parvus⟩ to Proto-Italic *pauro- and Proto-Indo-European *peh₂u-ro- (“little”), cognate with Ancient Greek παῦρος (paûros, “little”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌹 (fawai, “few”); ⟨paucus⟩ and ⟨pauper⟩ share the stem.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Plautus,^[4] who has “he had been my tutor when I was a little boy” in the Mercator.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is small in size, little or tiny, as Cicero's little boat, slight in degree or amount, and petty, as Terence's “about so small a thing!”.^[2][3][1] Of children and young animals it is little or young, and as a noun a little child, as Quintilian's children learning the names of letters;^[2][1] ā parvulō or ā parvulīs is from childhood, as Caesar's Germans who practise hardship from childhood.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “small, little, youthful, young”, and as a noun “little child”,^[6] the sense medieval Latin keeps.^[7] Köbler finds it in the Bible, the psalters, the law codes and Thomas Aquinas.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a little boy.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a petty matter.^[2][8]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the phrase “from childhood”.^[2][8]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of little children.^[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very small, little, tiny.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Slight, little in amount; petty, unimportant.^[2][3][1]
3. Young, little (of children).^[2][1][6]

Noun

1. A little child, an infant.^[2][1][6][7]

Word family

• perparvulus

Related words

• parvus
• paucus
• pauper

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ 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 c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de