perca

Forms

perca f (genitive percae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πέρκη (pérkē, “perch”).^[2][3][4][5] Köbler, Pokorny and Wiktionary trace the Greek word to Proto-Indo-European *perḱ- (“spotted, speckled”),^[4][6][1] the root Pokorny also sees in Ancient Greek περκάζω (perkázō, “to grow dark”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ovid has it in his poem on fishing, in a list of sea fish that keep among the rocks: lupī percaeque tragīque.^[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

It named the perch and similar fish of both river and sea.^[2][7] Pliny the Elder lists it among the fish that hide in caves in winter and are therefore rarely caught,^[7] prescribes the ash of a salted perch's head as a remedy,^[7] and counts it among the fish that live both in rivers and in the sea.^[7][3] Ausonius praises the perch of the Moselle,^[3][8] and the cookery book of Apicius has a recipe for it.^[8]

Medieval writers still used it for the freshwater perch, which an English glossary renders as ⟨perche⟩.^[9] It lives on in French perche, Old Occitan perca, Portuguese perca and dialects of northern Italy.^[7]

Timeline

• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid lists it among sea fish.^[7][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes its habits and its use in medicine.^[7][3][4]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius names it among the fish of the Moselle.^[3][4]
• 4th century AD – A recipe in the cookery book of Apicius uses it.^[8][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A perch or a similar fish, of river or sea.^[2][3][7]

Usage notes

Medieval Latin had another perca, a form of pertica “pole”, used as a measure of land;^[10][11] Du Cange takes it from French ⟨perche⟩.^[10][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre