pulvinus

Forms

pulvīnus m (genitive pulvīnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The TLL derives it from pulvis “dust” with the suffix ⟨-no-⟩, from ⟨*poluis-no-⟩ as aēnus is from ⟨*aies-no-⟩; it was first an adjective, meaning something filled with dust and spread under people sitting.^[2][1] The OLD calls it doubtful and Köbler unclear.^[3][4] De Vaan traces pulvis to Proto-Italic *pe/olaw(-is)- (“dust”) and Proto-Indo-European *pe/olH-u- (“chaff”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[4] in whom one character offers another a cushion on a bench and is told he is propped up well enough.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a cushion, pillow or bolster to sit or lie on: Cicero has Crassus ask for cushions, and Sallust a letter put on the pillow above someone's head.^[6][3] Wiktionary also gives a seat of honour.^[1] It is used of many things shaped or working like a cushion: a raised bed or ridge in a field, as in Varro, a raised border along a floor, as in Columella, the cushion of an Ionic capital, the rounded edge of a bath, a platform built in making a harbour, and part of a catapult, all in Vitruvius.^[3] Döderlein says that culcita is a hard-stuffed pillow, while pulvīnus and pulvīnar are soft ones, pulvīnus for ordinary occasions and pulvīnar for solemn religious ones.^[7] Church Latin glosses it cushion.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a cushion offered on a bench.^[3][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of raised beds in a field.^[3][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of cushions asked for by Crassus.^[6][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of architectural cushions.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cushion, pillow, bolster; a seat of honour.^[3][6][1][8]
2. A raised bed or ridge of earth; a raised border along a floor.^[3][1]
3. (architecture) The cushion of an Ionic capital; the rounded edge of a bath; a platform in a harbour.^[3][1]
4. Part of a catapult.^[3][1]

Word family

• pulvīllus
• pulvīnar
• pulvīnātus
• pulvīnulus

Related words

• pulvis
• culcita

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson