sextula

Forms

sextula f (genitive sextulae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sextus (“sixth”) + -ula: the feminine ⟨sexta⟩, understood with ⟨pars⟩ “part”, with a diminutive suffix.^[2][3][1] De Vaan traces sextus to Proto-Italic *seks-to-, the ordinal of *seks (“six”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro mentions it in De lingua Latina,^[3][5] and Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was one sixth of an uncia, so one seventy-second of an as or of any whole.^[2][3] Cicero has a man made heir to two sextulae of an estate, one thirty-sixth,^[3][7] Columella uses it as a measure of land, a seventy-second of a iugerum,^[3][5] and Martial has it as a small weight.^[7]

In the early Middle Ages Bede reckons a sextula at four scruples, and later writers equated it with the solidus.^[8] It was borrowed into Old English as sescle and Old High German as seskle.^[6]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro mentions it in De lingua Latina.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of an heir to two sextulae.^[3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it as a land measure.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. One sixth of an uncia, one seventy-second of an as or of any whole (as a share of an inheritance, a weight or a measure of land).^[2][3][5]
2. (Medieval Latin) A solidus.^[8]

Related words

• sextus
• sex
• uncia

References

1. ^ a b 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 i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
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