pilum

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpiː.ɫũː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpiː.lum]^[1]

Forms

pīlum n (genitive pīlī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *pistlom (“pestle”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pis-tlom, from Proto-Indo-European *peys- (“to crush”), the root of pīnsō “to pound”.^[1][2][3] The OLD takes the javelin to be probably the same word as the pestle.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is from Plautus, of a mechanical pounder.^[4] Köbler's first sources are Cato, for the pestle, and Ennius.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant a pestle, as in Cato's pīlum fabārium for beans.^[3][6] It was also the heavy throwing spear of the Roman legionary, as in Caesar and Cicero, pīlum mūrāle was a pike used by defenders of fortifications.^[4][6]

In Medieval Latin it meant a stake, a pile.^[7] Latin pīlum gave late Old English pīl “sharp stake”, English pile in the sense of a stake driven into the ground.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[4][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a pestle.^[3][5]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of the javelin.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pestle.^[4]
2. A javelin, the Roman legionary's throwing spear.^[4]
3. (Medieval Latin) A stake, pile.^[7]

Word family

• compīlō
• pilus
• pīlātus
• praepilātus

Related words

• pīla
• pīnsō
• pistillum
• English pile

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com