pessulus

Forms

pessulus m (genitive pessulī); second declension^[1] A neuter plural ⟨pessula⟩ occurs in Paulinus of Nola.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is usually taken as borrowed from Ancient Greek πάσσαλος (pássalos, “peg, nail”), adapted.^[4][2][5][1] The TLL objects that the vowel ⟨e⟩ and the meaning do not fit well; the word has the shape of a diminutive, but the possible base pessus (“pessary”) is not found before Celsus.^[6] The Greek word is traced to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ-, the root of pangō (“to fix”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found first in Plautus, as the bolt of a door: in the Aulularia a door is to be shut with both bolts, and in the Curculio a character greets the bolts.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

It always named the bolt of a door.^[4][2] Terence uses pessulum ostiō obdere, “to shoot the bolt of the door”, and Apuleius pessulōs inicere, “to push the bolts home”.^[2][7] Lewis and Short call it ante- and post-classical.^[2] Döderlein counts pessulī, with repāgula and obicēs, among bars that take the place of bolts, pessulus being a smaller bar for doors.^[8] The Vulgate has the bride opening the bolt of her door to her beloved in the Song of Songs,^[2] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it means the bolt of a door.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the bolts of a door.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence has the phrase pessulum obdere.^[2][5]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius has pessulōs inicere.^[2][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Song of Songs.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bolt of a door.^[4][2][9]

Word family

• oppessulō

Usage notes

A separate pessulus, a diminutive of pessus, is a small pessary in Caelius Aurelianus.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson