reniculus

Forms

rēniculus m (genitive rēniculī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin rēn (“kidney”) + -culus, a diminutive.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's earliest source is the physician Theodorus Priscianus, about 400 AD;^[5] Lewis & Short and Georges cite it from the medical writer Marcellus Empiricus, for a little kidney.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a word of medical writers and remained rare.^[6][5] In the plural it simply meant the kidneys, and the TLL lists Romance continuants of it.^[3] It was sometimes confused with rēnunculus.^[3][2] A British medieval prayer, the Lorica of Laidcenn, has reniculos among the parts of the body to be protected.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 400 AD – Theodorus Priscianus has the word.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin) A little kidney;^[6][3] (plural) the kidneys.^[6][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press