scapha

Forms

scapha f (genitive scaphae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκάφη (skáphē, “light boat, skiff”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Köbler connects the Greek word with σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kā̆p- (“to cut, split”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] whose Rudens has women jump from a ship into a skiff.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means a light boat or skiff, especially a ship's boat;^[2][3] Cicero, Livy and Horace use it.^[3] Church Latin keeps the sense boat or skiff.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of women leaping from a ship into the skiff.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it.^[3][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light boat, skiff, especially a ship's boat.^[2][3][6][1]

Word family

• scaphārius
• scaphula

Usage notes

Döderlein groups it with cymba and linter as skiffs and wherries for short distances, against nāvis, a ship for long voyages, and nāvigium, the general word for a vessel.^[7] Scapha is also the name of an old maid in Plautus' Mostellaria.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper