Etymologically
Log in

scapula

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 06:41. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈska.pʊ.ɫa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈskaː.pu.la][1]

Forms

scapula f (genitive scapulae); first declension[1]

Etymology

The singular is a later form of the classical plural scapulae (“shoulder blades”);[1][2] that plural is inherited from Proto-Italic *skap-elo- in de Vaan's reconstruction, cognate with Umbrian scapla (“shoulder blade”).[3] He and the OLD think the first sense may have been “spade” or “shovel”, from the shape;[3][4] the OLD compares Ancient Greek σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”), while de Vaan notes that a root ⟨*(s)kep-⟩ cannot explain the Latin ⟨a⟩.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates scapulae from Naevius;[3] Köbler also dates the word from him.[5] Plautus uses the plural in the Casina of shoulders that will be beaten if the speaker goes home.[4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin the word is plural, the shoulder blades of people and animals or the shoulders and back in general, often where flogging is meant.[4][6] Vitruvius uses it of the “shoulders” of a crane.[4] The singular scapula, the shoulder, belongs to Late Latin;[1][2] British Medieval Latin has it for a shoulder or the back, with phrases for arresting someone and for turning one's back and running away.[7] Stelten glosses the plural “shoulders, back, wings, shoulder blades”.[8] English took scapula in anatomy in the 1570s, from Modern Latin.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius has the plural.[3][5]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of shoulders that will be beaten.[4][5]
  • c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of the shoulders of a crane.[4][5]
  • 1570s – English scapula, the shoulder blade, from Modern Latin.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly plural) A shoulder blade; the shoulders, the back.[4][6][1]
  2. (plural) The upper part of a machine, its “shoulders”.[4]
  3. (Late Latin) The shoulder.[1][2][7]
  • scapulae
  • English scapula
  • English scapular

Usage notes

The OLD and Lewis & Short also record a separate scapula, the name of a kind of vine in Pliny the Elder, of unknown origin.[4][6] Scapula was also a Roman surname, borne by a partisan of Pompey in the Bellum Hispaniense and by a usurer of Cicero's time.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d 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
  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
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson