Etymologically
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pedalis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 16:35. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɛˈdaː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [peˈdaː.lis][1]

Forms

pedālis (neuter pedāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pēs (“foot”) + -ālis.[2][1][3] The base goes back to Proto-Italic *pōd- and Proto-Indo-European *pōd-s (“foot”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan records it from Cato on,[4] who uses it in his work on agriculture of something measuring one foot.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was above all a measure: Cicero says that the sun seems to him to be about a foot across (quasi pedalis),[6][5] and Caesar speaks of beams a foot wide.[5][7] The wider sense “of the foot” is rarer: Petronius uses it as a noun for footwear, which Lewis and Short take as a feminine “slipper” and Georges as a neuter.[6][8] The Vulgate has praecisio pedalis, a cutting off at the foot.[8]

In Medieval Latin the noun named the foot as a measure of length, and also a measure of a quantity of wood.[9] Through Late Latin pedale, Italian and French, it is the source of English pedal.[10]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a measure of one foot.[5][4][11]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero describes the sun as seeming quasi pedalis, about a foot across.[6][5][11]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar writes of beams a foot wide.[5][11]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius uses it as a noun for footwear.[6][8][11]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of the foot itself.[8][11]
  • 1610s – English borrows pedal, through French and Italian, from its Late Latin neuter.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Measuring a foot, one foot long, wide or thick.[2][6]
  2. Of or belonging to the foot.[6][8]

Noun

  1. (rare) Footwear, a slipper.[6][8]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A foot as a measure of length; a measure of a quantity of wood.[9]

Word family

  • English pedal

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c 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 f Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T. (1890), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: American Book Company
  8. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de