Etymologically
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polenta

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pɔˈɫɛn.ta][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [poˈlɛn.ta][1]

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

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