patruelis

Forms

patruēlis m or f (genitive patruēlis); third declension^[1] Ablative singular patruēle in Nepos, beside the usual patruēlī.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin patruus (“father's brother”) + -ēlis.^[2][1][4] De Vaan, following Leumann, suggests that it may be dissimilated from an older *patruīlis, “of a father's brother”.^[5] The noun patruus belongs to pater (“father”) and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tr-u- (“father's brother”).^[5]

Related words for the father's brother are Sanskrit पितृव्य (pitr̥vya-) and Young Avestan tūiriia- (“father's brother”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler, de Vaan and the TLL record it first in Naevius,^[6][5][4] who has fratri patrueli meo, “to my cousin”.^[4] In Plautus' Poenulus two Carthaginians are said to have been fratres patrueles, first cousins.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first use is the phrase frater patruēlis or soror patruēlis, a cousin through one's father's brother, as against cōnsobrīnus, a cousin through one's mother's sister.^[3][2] Cicero calls Lucius Cicero his brother by kinship patruelis, by affection germanus.^[3][4] Jurists place the fratres and sorores patrueles in the fourth degree of kinship.^[4] Used alone as a noun it means a cousin, in Suetonius and Persius,^[3] and Cicero once uses it of a father's sister's son.^[3] Poets use it more loosely: Ovid has patruelis origo, and the patruelia dona are gifts that belonged to a cousin.^[2][3]

In Medieval Latin it could mean the father's brother himself,^[7][8] and writers in Britain also use it for a cousin or a nephew.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius has frater patruelis, “cousin”.^[4][6]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of two Carthaginian fratres patrueles.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero calls Lucius Cicero his cousin patruelis.^[3][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the descent and possessions of cousins.^[2][6]
• 140–180 AD – Gaius puts cousins of this kind in the fourth degree of kinship.^[4][6]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede uses it for a paternal uncle.^[8][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a paternal uncle.^[2][3]
2. frāter or soror patruēlis: a first cousin, the child of one's father's brother.^[2][3]
3. Of or belonging to such a cousin.^[2][3]

Noun

1. A first cousin on the father's side.^[3][1][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) A father's brother, paternal uncle.^[7][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) A nephew.^[8]

Related words

• mātruēlis
• patruus
• pater
• cōnsobrīnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson