patulus

Forms

patulus (feminine patula, neuter patulum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pateō (“to be open”) + -ulus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan calls pateō an inner-Italic formation, Proto-Italic *patē-, on a base *pat- that he discusses under pandō (“to spread out”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It is first of openings, wide open or gaping: Lucretius has wide nostrils, and Cicero a mussel with two large gaping shells.^[2][6] Varro uses it of a place open to common use.^[2] It also means spreading wide, of the expanse of the world in Lucretius and of spreading trees in Varro, and later of broad dishes and broad leaves.^[2] The TLL finds no comparative or superlative.^[3] Church Latin glosses it extended, open.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of spreading trees and of a common space.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of wide nostrils.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a gaping mussel.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Wide open, gaping; open, accessible.^[2][6][7][1]
2. Spreading, broad, extended; of trees, wide-spreading.^[2][7][1]

Word family

• prōpatulus

Related words

• pateō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson