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patella

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word patella

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
116–27 BC, Varro
Ultimate origin
Latin (patina)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin patina
Latin patella

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [paˈtɛl.la][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [paˈtɛl.la][1]

Forms

patella f (genitive patellae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin patina (“dish, pan”) + -la, a diminutive.[2][3][4] The TLL derives it from that noun or from patera (“bowl”).[5] Varro explained such dishes from patulus (“open, spread out”), and Isidore of Seville likewise described the dish as a wide-mouthed pot.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Varro,[6] whose Menippean satires say that a dish set before a hungry man is a challenge to the fishponds of Naples.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a small dish or plate, used also for cooking:[2][3] Varro has onions cooked in dishes, Horace and Martial use it, and Pliny the Elder mustard boiled in pans.[2][3] An inscription uses it of a military decoration for bravery, perhaps a small shield.[2] Celsus calls the small soft bone that covers the knee joint the patella, from its shape.[2][4] It also names a disease of the olive tree.[1] In medieval Latin it is a salt pan or a kind of lamp.[7] Through Old French and Catalan it gave Spanish paella, and English took patella for the kneecap in the 1690s.[4]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro of a dish and of cooking in dishes.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace.[3]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus of the kneecap.[2]
  • 1690s – Borrowed into English as patella, "kneecap".[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small dish or plate; a pan for cooking.[2][3][1][8]
  2. A military decoration for bravery, perhaps a small shield.[2]
  3. The kneecap, patella.[2][1][4]
  4. A disease of the olive tree.[1]
  5. (Medieval Latin) A salt pan; a kind of lamp.[7]

Word family

  • patellārius
  • patellula

Usage notes

Arnobius and Augustine name goddesses Patella and Patellāna, set over the opening of the grain.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
Cite this entry

“Patella.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/patella. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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