Etymologically
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perca

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛr.ka][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛr.ka][1]

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