pedica

Forms

pedica f (genitive pedicae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pēs (“foot”),^[2][1][3] formed like manica (“sleeve; handcuff”).^[4][1] The OLD compares Ancient Greek πέδη (pédē, “fetter”).^[5] The noun pēs goes back to Proto-Italic *pōd- and Proto-Indo-European *pōds.^[2]

It survives in Old Italian piedica.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[2][6] who uses it of fetters for the feet in the Asinaria and the Poenulus.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

From a shackle for a person's ankle it came to mean a snare for animals that catches them by the foot;^[5][8] Servius glosses it as a noose in which the feet are caught.^[4] Lucilius and Apuleius use it figuratively, of a mind caught in nooses and fetters and of the fetters of love and marriage.^[5][8][7] Pliny the Elder applies it to a spider's web.^[3] Medieval Latin used it for a foot as a unit in assessing work on ramparts, and for a toe;^[9] in British sources it is a trap, especially for wolves.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a fetter for the feet.^[5][6]
• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius: sīc laqueīs, manicīs, pedicīs mēns inrētīta est, “so the mind is entangled in nooses, handcuffs and fetters”.^[5][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: gruibus pedicās et rētia pōnere cervīs, “to set snares for cranes and nets for deer”.^[5][3][6]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius writes of the eternal fetters of love.^[5][6]
• 1167 – An English record pays for traps to catch wolves.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fetter for the ankle, shackle.^[5][3]
2. A snare, gin trap.^[5][3]
3. (figurative) A fetter, bond: amōris pedicae, the bonds of love.^[5][8]
4. (Medieval Latin) A foot, as a unit for assessing work on fortifications.^[9]
5. (Medieval Latin) A toe.^[9]

Word family

• pedicinus
• impedicō

Related words

• compēs
• impediō

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes pedicae, irons for the feet, manicae, irons for the hands, and compedēs, fetters in general.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper