Etymologically
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piscina

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɪsˈkiː.na][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [piʃˈʃiː.na][1]

Forms

piscīna f (genitive piscīnae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin piscis (“fish”) + -īna.[2][1][3] The TLL reports this derivation from Leumann but suggests it may be the feminine of an adjective ⟨piscīnus⟩ used as a noun.[3] De Vaan traces piscis to Proto-Italic *piski- (“fish”) and Proto-Indo-European *pisk- (“fish”), with cognates such as Old Irish íasc (“fish”) and Old Norse fiskr (“fish”); he finds the vowel of the Celtic forms hard to explain.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD find it first in Plautus' Truculentus, of someone casting a net into a fishpond.[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is first a fishpond: Varro distinguishes ponds of fresh and of salt water,[5] and Cicero uses it in the Paradoxa Stoicorum and in a letter to Atticus.[5] Cato already uses it of a pool in general, putting a jar of must into one,[2] and Columella of ponds for cattle to bathe and drink in.[5] Later it is a swimming pool, warm or cold, as in Seneca, Pliny the Younger, Suetonius and Martial,[5] part of a water supply, a settling tank, in Frontinus,[2] and a vat or tank in Pliny the Elder.[2] Livy names the Piscīna pūblica, a public pool at the Porta Capena, which in Festus' time survived only as a name.[5] In the Vulgate it is the pool of Bethesda in John's Gospel;[5] in Church Latin it also became a baptismal font and the basin in a church that receives the water of the rites,[6][7] and Niermeyer adds a wash-bowl.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a fishpond.[2][8]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato of a pool in general.[2]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy names the Piscīna pūblica.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of a swimming pool.[5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of the pool of Bethesda.[5]
  • early 14th century – piscine appears in English, through Old French.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fishpond.[2][5][1]
  2. A pond or pool in general; a pond for watering cattle.[2][5][1]
  3. A tank in a water supply, a settling tank or reservoir; a vat.[2][5]
  4. A swimming pool, bath.[2][5][1]
  5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A baptismal font; the sacrarium of a church.[6][7]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A wash-bowl.[7]

Word family

  • piscīnālis
  • piscīnārius
  • sēmipiscīna

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com