siligineus

Forms

silīgineus (feminine silīginea, neuter silīgineum); first/second-declension adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

It is from Latin silīgō (“a fine, soft wheat”) + -eus.^[1][3][4] De Vaan lists both words, attested from Cato on, among the derivatives he groups under silex (“flint”), while doubting that the words of that group belong together at all.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Cato's De agricultura, in farīna silīginea, flour of the finest wheat.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides flour it describes bread of fine wheat: Varro, quoted by Nonius, says that to the hungry coarse bread seems white wheaten bread,^[6][2] and Seneca and the Historia Augusta speak of such bread too.^[2][4] Martial uses it of loaves baked in an obscene shape.^[2][4] A late form silīgnus is found in Dynamius.^[2]

In medieval Britain the grain it referred to was probably rye, and panis silīgineus was a coarse bread eaten by the poor or by ascetics.^[7] Du Cange likewise explains the medieval bread as made from rye.^[8]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato speaks of flour of the finest wheat.^[2][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro contrasts coarse bread with white wheaten bread.^[6][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca mentions wheaten bread.^[2][3]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of loaves of obscene shape.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of silīgō, the finest wheat, or of its flour; wheaten.^[1][2][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) Made of rye; of rye bread.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ 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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
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. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre