reticulum

Forms

rēticulum n (genitive rēticulī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin rēte (“net”) + -culum, a diminutive of the word for a net.^[2][1][3] Etymonline describes it as a double diminutive of rēte.^[4] The OLD records a masculine by-form ⟨rēticulus⟩ beside the neuter.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Lewis & Short date it from Plautus, who speaks of hunting “with a little net in the middle of the sea”;^[3][5] Georges notes that the editors Goetz and Loewe read reti iaculo (“with a casting net”) in that line instead.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it named any small net or net-like bag for holding things: Cicero has one full of roses held to the nose, Horace a net bag of bread carried on the shoulder, Ovid a net for playing ball, Seneca a strainer for wine.^[2][5] It was also the net that held women's hair in place, which Varro already explains as the thing “that held the hair”,^[2] and it is worn by Fortunata in Petronius and mocked on an effeminate man in Juvenal.^[2] Fenestella and Festus use it for some kind of undergarment.^[2]

The Vulgate also has the form ⟨rētiāculum⟩, and uses the word for the caul over the liver.^[5][6] In British Medieval Latin it was a small net for fish or rabbits, a hairnet or coif, a veil against insects, and the fat around the liver.^[7] English took it in the 1650s as reticle, “a little net”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for a fishing net.^[3][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro explains it as a hairnet and uses it for netting in an aviary.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions a net bag full of roses.^[2][3]
• before 66 AD – Petronius describes a golden hairnet.^[2][3]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for the caul over the liver.^[5][3]
• 1650s – English borrows it as reticle.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small net or net bag for holding, carrying or confining something.^[2][5]
2. A hairnet.^[2][5]
3. Some kind of undergarment.^[2]
4. A strainer or colander.^[5][6]
5. A net used in playing ball.^[5][6]
6. Netting or latticework, for example in an aviary.^[2][5]
7. (Late Latin) The caul or omentum over the liver.^[5][6]
8. (Medieval Latin) A veil to keep off insects.^[7]

Word family

• rēticulātus

Related words

• English reticle

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b 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