puella

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [puˈɛl.la]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [puˈɛl.la]^[1]

Forms

puella f (genitive puellae, masculine puellus); first declension^[1] A dative and ablative plural puellābus is reported from the historian Gnaeus Gellius.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine of puellus (“little boy”), itself contracted from puerulus, a diminutive of puer (“boy”).^[2][1] De Vaan explains it as from ⟨*puere-la⟩ “little girl”.^[4] ⟨puer⟩ is inherited from Proto-Italic *puwero-, which he traces to Proto-Indo-European *ph₂u-ero- (“smaller”), though he notes that this would rather have given ⟨*pawero-⟩, so ⟨puer⟩ may have been built later to the Proto-Italic root ⟨*pau-, *pū̆-⟩ “small, young”.^[4] Köbler connects it with Proto-Indo-European *pōu- (“small, young”) (Pokorny 842).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and the OLD have it from Plautus, “girl”.^[4][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is a female child, a girl; from Plautus it is also a young woman, married or not, and in Horace and the love poets a girl as an object of love, a sweetheart, and Terence uses it of a slave girl.^[2][6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it means girl, maiden.^[7] Medieval Latin used it for a maidservant, a female slave, and in puella Deī for a nun.^[8] In British Medieval Latin castrum puellārum was Edinburgh.^[9] English puella is a learned borrowing.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a girl and of a young woman.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of a slave girl.^[2][5]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a girl as an object of love.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female child, girl.^[2][3]
2. A young woman, married or unmarried.^[2]
3. A sweetheart, a girl loved.^[2][6]
4. A slave girl.^[2]
5. (Medieval Latin) A maidservant, puella Deī, a nun.^[8]

Word family

• puellāris
• puellarius
• puellascō
• puellatorius
• puellitor
• puellula
• semipuella

Related words

• puer
• puera
• puerīlis
• puerīliter
• puellus
• pūbēs

Usage notes

Isidore of Seville explained puella as parvula, “little one”, “as if pulla”.^[10]

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 j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).