Etymologically
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pellis

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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
  • 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