Etymologically
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penus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛ.nʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛː.nus][1]

Forms

penus m or f (genitive penī or penūs); variously declined, second declension, fourth declension[1] Usually feminine (in Plautus once masculine) of the fourth or second declension, genitive penūs or penī; also neuter penum, penī and neuter penus, penoris.[2][3] Gellius reports genitives peneris and peniteris, and Charisius a form penū in Afranius.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *penos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pen-os (“food”).[4][1] Cognate with Lithuanian penė́ti (“to feed”).[4][2] De Vaan cites Stüber's account of the meanings of the family: “what one feeds with”, then “the place one feeds at”, then “the interior, the home”, which explains penes, penitus and penetrō; he finds it unclear whether the neuter ⟨penus, -oris⟩ or the second- and fourth-declension noun is older.[4] Older dictionaries linked it with pāscō (“to feed”) or Ancient Greek πένομαι (pénomai, “to toil”).[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus,[4][6] who has virōs quibus sunt verba sine penū et pecūniā, “men who have words but no food or money”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the store of food of a household, provisions of every kind:[2][3] Cicero defines it as everything that people eat,[3] and Döderlein notes that, unlike alimenta, it refers to the needs of a whole family.[7] In law it was a separate category of a person's property, which could be left in a will: Lucilius mentions a man who left his wife mundum omne penumque, and the Digest has a title on legacies of provisions;[2][3] Gellius discusses the jurists' definitions.[3] Columella has the neuter plural penora.[3][5] Festus records that the innermost part of the temple of Vesta was called penus, and the Historia Augusta says that Elagabalus broke into it.[3][2]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of household provisions.[2][6]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence has omnem penum.[5][2]
  • c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it of a legacy to a wife.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero defines it as all that people eat.[3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it in the Aeneid.[8][2]
  • 1st century AD – Columella has the plural penora.[3]
  • c. 165 AD – Gellius discusses its legal definition.[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Food, provisions, especially the store of food of a household.[2][3][1]
  2. (law) Provisions as a category of property, for instance in a legacy.[2][3]
  3. The innermost part of the temple of Vesta, a sanctuary or storeroom there.[2][3]

Word family

  • penes
  • penārius
  • penātēs
  • penātor
  • penuārius

References

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