placenta

Forms

placenta f (genitive placentae); first declension^[1] A neuter placentum also occurs.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πλακόεντα (plakóenta), adapted from the accusative of πλακόεις (plakóeis) or πλακοῦς (plakoûs, “flat cake”).^[3][1][4] The TLL notes the change of gender, as in crātēra from the masculine κρατήρ (kratḗr), and explains the ending ⟨-enta⟩ rather from polenta than from placēns.^[2] Wiktionary takes the Greek word from πλάξ (pláx, “flat”), and Köbler cites Pokorny's root ⟨*plāk-⟩ “broad, flat”.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cato,^[5] and Cato uses it.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It is a kind of flat cake: Wiktionary describes it as round, with a ribbed base, a domed top and a filling of honey and cheese.^[3][1] Horace, Juvenal and Martial mention it, and in the Vulgate it is a cake made as an offering.^[4] Church Latin glosses it cake.^[6] In the 16th century the Italian anatomist Realdo Colombo called the organ that joins the foetus to the womb placenta uterīna, the uterine cake, and New Latin placenta came into English in the 1690s.^[7][1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of the cake.^[4][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace mentions it.^[4][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of a cake made as an offering.^[4][5]
• 1690s – English placenta for the organ.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat cake, especially one with a honey and cheese filling.^[3][4][1][6]
2. (New Latin, anatomy) The placenta.^[1][7]

Word family

• placentarius

Related words

• English placenta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com