sentina

Forms

sentīna f (genitive sentīnae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *sem-t-, from Proto-Indo-European *semH- (“to scoop”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan sees no formal or semantic obstacle to the connection, but notes that without other Latin words from the root it remains a root etymology.^[2] The OLD instead compares, with a “perhaps”, Ancient Greek ἄντλος (ántlos).^[4] Cognate with Old Irish do·essim (“to pour out”), Middle Welsh gwehynnu (“to pour out, empty”), Old Breton douohinnom (“to scoop”) and Lithuanian sémti (“to scoop”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero on;^[2][3] in On Old Age he pictures a ship where some climb the masts, some run along the gangways and others bale out the bilge-water: alii sentinam exhauriant.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the foul water that collects in the bottom of a ship, and the bilge itself.^[4][5] Caesar has it too, and Seneca a ship that lets in bilge-water;^[5] Pliny the Elder says that fish flee the smell of ships' bilge.^[5] Figuratively it is the dregs or scum of society: Cicero speaks of the state ridding itself of “this bilge of the city”, and Sallust says that all who were driven from home by their crimes had flowed into Rome as into a bilge.^[4] In Church Latin it is also the hold of a ship and refuse.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero, of bilge-water and of the dregs of the city.^[4][5][3]
• 86–34 BC – Sallust, of Rome as a bilge for criminals.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bilge-water; the bilge or hold of a ship.^[4][5][1][6]
2. (figurative) The dregs, scum or rabble of society.^[4][5][1]

Word family

• sentīnō
• sentīnōsus

Related words

• persillum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: 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 d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson