polenta

Forms

polenta f (genitive polentae); first declension^[1] A neuter polentum also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin pollen (“fine flour”), with the collective suffix ⟨-ta⟩;^[4][5][6][1] the TLL takes it as originally an adjective “provided with fine flour”, with the double ⟨ll⟩ of ⟨*pollen-ta⟩ simplified before the accented syllable, as in mamilla beside mamma.^[3] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pol-ēn or Proto-Italic *pol-n- and Proto-Indo-European *pol(H)-n-, with a query, and compares Ancient Greek πάλη (pálē, “fine flour, dust”) and Ancient Greek πόλτος (póltos, “thick pap of flour”), which are not close formal matches; within Latin puls (“porridge”) may be related.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has men who pound barley groats in the Asinaria.^[2] Köbler's first author is Cato.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is hulled and crushed grain, especially barley groats or barley meal.^[4][2] Cato, Columella and Pliny the Elder use it.^[2] A neuter polentum occurs in Caelius Aurelianus and a neuter plural polenta in Macrobius.^[2][3] Church Latin glosses it barley.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of pounding groats.^[2][5]
• 234–149 BC – Cato.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Hulled and crushed grain; barley groats, barley meal, pearl barley.^[4][2][1][7]

Word family

• polentācius
• polentārius

Related words

• pollen
• puls

References

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