pinnaculum

Forms

pinnāculum n (genitive pinnāculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin pinna (“feather, wing; battlement”) + -culum.^[2][1][3] The TLL notes that it is not a regular diminutive: the suffix and the neuter gender differ from what the feminine base would give.^[2] It reports the view of Serbat that the word was first made for the top of a building on the model of prōpugnāculum (“bulwark”), and that its other senses followed Greek usage;^[2] Wiktionary likewise mentions the analogy with that noun and calls the biblical use a calque of Ancient Greek πτερύγιον (pterúgion, “little wing; pinnacle”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian (c. 160–220 AD)^[4] uses it in his treatise against the Jews for the top of the Temple, which Daniel foretold would be destroyed.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The Old Latin Bible and the Vulgate use it in Matthew for the pinnaculum templi, the highest point of the Temple.^[2][6] In the Old Latin text of IV Esdras it means the small wings of the eagle seen in a dream,^[2][5] and Latin medical writers used it for parts of the body, especially the labia, after a Greek term.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it named a gable or steeple,^[7] and in British sources a battlement or parapet, the top of a tower, any pointed ornament on a building or on a piece of goldsmith's work, and once a stalactite.^[3] It lives on in Italian pennacchio and, through Middle French, in panache;^[1][2] English took pinnacle around 1300 from Old French and directly from the Late Latin word.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for the top of the Temple.^[2][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has pinnaculum templi in Matthew.^[6][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm writes of the pinnacula of walls.^[3][4]
• 1280 – A British account pays for making two pinnacles on walls.^[3]
• c. 1300 – English borrows it as pinnacle.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A small wing.^[2][5]
2. (Late Latin) The peak or highest point of a building, especially of the Temple; a pinnacle.^[6][2][9]
3. (Late Latin, medicine) A part of the body that sticks out, especially the labia.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin) A gable, steeple, battlement or parapet.^[7][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) A pointed ornament on a building or on metalwork.^[3]

Related words

• English pinnacle
• English panache

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson