sappa

Forms

sappa f (genitive sappae); first declension^[1] Niermeyer gives the spellings sapa, zappa, zapa and sappis.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3][1] Wiktionary reports that Meyer-Lübke took ⟨zapp-⟩ as a borrowing from Illyrian, linking the word with the name of the billy goat because the blades of the mattock resembled its horns, and compares Albanian capë.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gaffiot and Jeanneau cite it only from the glossaries, as a kind of mattock;^[4][5] Köbler adds charters of the 10th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a word of Late and Medieval Latin, a hoe or pick for digging.^[2][1][4] Du Cange records its use by writers on warfare for the undermining of a wall's foundations, French sape.^[6]

It survives in the Romance languages, in Italian zappa, Catalan sapa, Friulian sape and Aromanian sapã, and passed into Byzantine Greek as τσάπα (tsápa).^[1]

Timeline

• 10th century – Charters use it for a mattock.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of mattock, a hoe or pick.^[2][4][1]
2. (Medieval Latin, warfare) The undermining of a wall's foundations, a sap.^[6]

Usage notes

Köbler lists a separate Medieval Latin sappa “fir” from a British record of 1213, taken from sappīnus.^[3] Du Cange also gives sappa as a spelling of sapa, must boiled down by two thirds.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ Jeanneau, Gérard; Woitrain, Jean-Paul; Hassid, Jean-Claude (2017), Dictionnaire latin-français, online ed., prima-elementa.fr
6. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre