penicillus
Forms
pēnicillus m (genitive pēnicillī); second declension[1] Also neuter pēnicillum and pēnicillis;[1] manuscripts of Vegetius write penicell-.[2]
Etymology
It is a diminutive from Latin pēniculus (“brush”),[2] or, as the OLD analyses it, from Latin pēnis + -cillus.[1] Cicero himself explains it: the ancients called a tail ⟨penis⟩, and the brush was named from its likeness.[1][2] For the further origin of pēnis, see that word.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first found in Cicero (81–43 BC),[4] meaning a paintbrush; in a letter he explains the word from penis, the old word for a tail.[1]
Semantic evolution
From the painter's brush Cicero also used it for the art of painting itself, saying that a supreme grief could not be imitated with the brush.[1] Celsus uses it in medicine for a swab or pad soaked in cold water,[1] Pliny the Elder for the softest kind of sponge,[1] and an inscription from Britain names an eye-salve with it.[1]
Timeline
- 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for a painter's brush and for the art of painting.[1][4]
- 14–37 AD – Celsus uses it for a medical swab.[1][4]
- 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for a kind of sponge.[1][4]
Meanings
Noun
- A paintbrush, especially an artist's brush.[1]
- (by metonymy) The brush, the art of painting.[1]
- A kind of sponge.[1]
- An eye-salve, perhaps named from this.[1]
- (medicine) A swab, pad.[1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de