pistrinum

Forms

pistrīnum n (genitive pistrīnī); second declension^[1] The manuscripts often have pristrinum, several times in Plautus and in Catullus.^[2][3]

Etymology

The OLD derives it from Latin pīnsō (“to pound, crush”) with the suffix ⟨-trīnum⟩;^[4] Wiktionary and the TLL derive it from pistor (“pounder, miller, baker”) with ⟨-īnum⟩.^[1][5] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the verb, which goes back to Proto-Italic *pins- (“to grind”) and Proto-Indo-European *pi-n-s- (“to grind”).^[6] Cognates of the verb include Sanskrit पिनष्टि (pináṣṭi, “crushes, grinds”), Ancient Greek πτίσσω (ptíssō, “to winnow grain”) and Lithuanian paisýti (“to remove the beards of chaff”).^[6] Varro connected it with the pestle, pīlum, with which spelt was pounded, and Isidore of Seville explained it as if from ⟨pilistrinum⟩, because grain was pounded with a pestle.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler record it first in Plautus,^[6][7] who calls a slave pistrinorum civitas, “citizen of the mills”, and has a character say he would rather spend his life in the quarries or in the mill.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was a place where grain was pounded, later a mill usually worked by horses or donkeys, where bread was also baked.^[3][2] Lazy or bad slaves were sent there as a punishment, so Terence threatens te in pistrinum dedam, “I'll hand you over to the mill”, and calls a man pistrino dignus, “fit for the mill”.^[4][3] Plautus mentions pigs fattened in the mills on the bran.^[2] Cicero turns it into a figure of drudgery: an orator should not be pushed into the law courts as into a mill, and in De oratore one speaker tells another tibi mecum in eodem est pistrino vivendum, “you must live with me in the same mill”.^[4][2] Suetonius and Apuleius use pistrinum exercere for running a bakery.^[2] In medieval Latin it means a bakery or bakehouse.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of the mill as a place of punishment for slaves.^[4][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence threatens a slave with the mill.^[4][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively of drudgery.^[4][7]
• Medieval Latin – It means a bakery or bakehouse.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mill for pounding or grinding grain; a bakery.^[4][3]
2. The mill as a place of punishment for slaves; figuratively, drudgery.^[4][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) A bakery, bakehouse.^[8]

Word family

• pistrīnālis
• pistrīnārius
• pistrīnensis

Related words

• pistor
• pīlum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill