pisinnus

Forms

pĭsinnus (feminine pĭsinna, neuter pĭsinnum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2] A variant pitinnus is found in a Christian inscription.^[3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain; the OLD takes it to be perhaps a word of children's speech.^[2] Köbler, following Walde and Hofmann, derives it from an element ⟨pis-⟩, ⟨pit-⟩ for small things, influenced by names of birds that also denoted little things.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in a line of the poet Labeo quoted by a scholiast on Persius, where pisinni are the little children of Priam.^[5][3][2] Köbler dates Labeo, with a query, to the 1st century AD.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was a colloquial word, at home in late and popular Latin.^[2][1] Marcellus Empiricus uses it as an adjective, of a little lizard and a small cup,^[3] and the pilgrim Egeria has the phrase a pisinno, “from childhood”.^[1] The Appendix Probi censures it: pusillus non pisinnus, “pusillus, not pisinnus”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1st century AD? – Labeo calls Priam's children pisinni.^[5][4]
• after 384 AD – Egeria uses a pisinno, “from childhood”, and the adjective for small.^[1][4]
• c. 400 AD – Marcellus Empiricus speaks of a small lizard.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. tiny, little.^[2][3][1]

Noun

1. (masculine) A little child.^[2][5][3]

Related words

• pusillus

Usage notes

The Appendix Probi lists pisinnus among the forms to avoid, giving pusillus as the correct word.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.