pupilla

Forms

pūpilla f (genitive pūpillae); first declension^[1] An inscription has the dative plural pūpillābus.^[2][3] The Tabula Heracleensis abbreviates it as a reversed PV.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin pūpa (“girl, doll”) + -illa,^[2][1] or a diminutive of pūpula, itself from pūpa.^[1] De Vaan sees in pūpa a reduplicated form of the ⟨*pū-⟩ of puer (“boy”), a common type in affective words, though this is uncertain.^[5] The sense “pupil of the eye” refers to the small image of oneself that one sees in another's eye,^[1][3] like the double sense of Ancient Greek κόρη (kórē, “girl; pupil”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both senses appear in the 1st century BC: de Vaan dates it from Lucretius, who uses it of the pupil of the eye,^[5][2] and Cicero's Verrines accuse Verres of robbing an infant ward of her inheritance.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense, a girl under the care of a guardian, is that of the jurists, who use it beside pūpillus;^[2][6] Apuleius says he would rather be offered a plain mother of children than a beautiful ward.^[2] The eye sense is common in Celsus and Pliny the Elder;^[2] Pliny and Gellius tell of people with two pupils in each eye, and Pliny describes the gem asteria as holding its light like a pupil.^[2][3] Apuleius uses it for the eye as a whole.^[4] The Vulgate has the eye sense too.^[4] Church Latin has “orphan girl, ward, small girl, pupil of the eye”.^[7] English pupil meant an orphan or ward in the late 14th century, partly through Old French, from Latin pūpillus and pūpilla.^[8]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius, of the pupil of the eye.^[2][5][9]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a girl ward.^[2][9]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus, of the pupil dilating.^[2][9]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder, of the pupil of the eye and of a gem.^[2][9]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate, of the pupil of the eye.^[4][9]
• late 14th century – English pupil, “ward”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A girl under the care of a guardian, a ward, an orphan girl.^[2][4][1]
2. The pupil of the eye;^[2][4][1] the eye.^[4]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A small girl.^[7]

Related words

• pūpillus
• pūpa
• pūpula
• puer
• English pupil

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de