Etymologically
Log in

sarculum

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 14:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsar.kʊ.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsar.ku.lum][1]

Forms

sarculum n (genitive sarculī); second declension[1] Palladius uses a masculine sarculus.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Latin sarriō (“to hoe, weed”) + -culum, from the verb's form ⟨sāriō⟩.[3][1] De Vaan reconstructs the verb as Proto-Italic *sars-je/o- (“to hoe, weed”), from Proto-Indo-European *srs-ie/o- (“to cut off, weed”), and compares Sanskrit सृणी (sr̥ṇī́-, “sickle”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[5] who uses it in the Truculentus.[4] Cato mentions it too.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a light hoe for loosening the soil and weeding, mentioned by Cato, Varro, Columella and Pliny the Elder;[2][6] Pliny says that some peoples plough with hoes, sarculis arant.[6] Horace and Ovid have it in poetry,[2][4] and Apuleius sums up farming as in sarculo et surculo, the hoe and the cutting.[6] The Vulgate uses it in Isaiah.[2]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a forest clearing.[7] Writers in Britain use it of a hoe or mattock, and a letter of 786 among Alcuin's figuratively of the good farmer's hoe that roots out thorns from sinners' hearts.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4][5][9]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato mentions it in his work on farming.[2][9]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it in the Odes.[2][4][9]
  • end of 4th/beginning of 5th century AD – Palladius uses the masculine sarculus.[2][9]
  • 786 – A letter among Alcuin's uses it figuratively.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hoe for loosening the soil and weeding.[3][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A forest clearing.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  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. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de