pellis

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpɛl.lɪs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpɛl.lis]^[1]

Forms

pellis f (genitive pellis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pelni-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pel-ni- (“skin, hide”), from a root *pel- that may have meant “to strip, skin” but is not found on its own.^[2][3][1]

Cognate with Lithuanian plėnė̃ (“membrane”), Old English fell (“skin, hide”) and Old Norse fjall,^[2][4] and with Ancient Greek πέλμα (pélma, “sole of the foot”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[2] Cato tells the farmer to take a snakeskin as part of a remedy.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant the skin or hide of an animal, and in poetry human skin.^[4][1] A stripped hide was a commodity, as in Cato's list of things a farmer sells: oil, wool and skins.^[4] Treated hide was leather, and so straps or a shoe, as in Ovid's “do not let your foot swim in a loose shoe”.^[4]

Because soldiers' tents were covered with skins, it also meant a tent, and it was used for parchment.^[1][5] It survives as Romanian piele, Italian pelle, French peau, Spanish piel and Portuguese pele.^[1] English pell meant a skin in the 14th century and a roll of parchment in the 15th.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for a snakeskin and for hides sold by a farmer.^[4][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar describes animals' skins.^[4][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it for a shoe.^[4][5]
• mid-14th century – English pell “skin” is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The skin, hide (of an animal), (poetic) human skin.^[4][7]
2. A hide (as a commodity); a pelt.^[4][1]
3. Leather; a strap; a shoe.^[4]
4. A tent (covered with skins).^[1]
5. Parchment.^[1][5]

Word family

• pellārius
• pelleatus
• pellesuīna
• pellicius
• pellicula
• pellinus
• pelliris
• pellītus
• centipelliō
• tentipellium
• versipellis

Related words

• English pell
• English fell

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press