peniculus

Forms

pēniculus m (genitive pēniculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from Latin pēnis + -culus, literally “a little tail”.^[2][3][4] De Vaan traces pēnis to Proto-Italic *petsni- (“tail”).^[4] It is usually connected with Proto-Indo-European *pes-ni- (“penis”), but de Vaan argues that “tail” is the original meaning and “penis” a metaphor from it.^[4]

Festus explains that brushes for cleaning shoes were made from the ends of tails, hence the name.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus (c. 250–184 BC) on,^[4][6] for a sponge: in the Rudens something is wrung out “as a new sponge usually is”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Menaechmi Plautus has a parasite called Peniculus, “Brush”, who says the young men gave him the name because he wipes the table clean when he eats;^[3] Lewis & Short think the name may also play on the obscene sense.^[3] The word meant a brush for dust and a sponge, used also by Terence,^[3] and in the Digest a painter's brush.^[3] In Medieval Latin it could mean a scourge.^[7][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a sponge and as the name of a parasite.^[2][3][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it for a sponge.^[3][6]
• second half of the 2nd century AD – Festus explains it as a brush made from tails.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brush for removing dust, originally made of an ox's or horse's tail.^[2][3]
2. A sponge.^[2][3]
3. A painter's brush.^[3]
4. (perhaps, in a pun) The penis.^[3]
5. (Medieval Latin) A scourge.^[7][1]

Word family

• pēnicillus
• pēniculāmentum

Related words

• penis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill