siligo

Forms

silīgō f (genitive silīginis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The OLD and Köbler call its origin unknown.^[2][3] De Vaan lists it among the words beside silex (“flint”) and thinks that the meaning of siliqua (“pod”) is close enough to suggest that it was formed with ⟨-īgō⟩ on the same root; he doubts that the words for flint and pod belong together at all.^[4] Wiktionary calls it probably not Indo-European, a candidate substrate word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and de Vaan date it from Cato,^[3][4] whose farm manual mentions it.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a soft, very white kind of wheat,^[2][7] which Lewis and Short identify as winter wheat; it is found in Varro, Celsus, Columella and Pliny the Elder.^[7][6] By metonymy it meant fine wheaten flour, in Pliny and in Juvenal.^[7][8]

In medieval Latin, by confusion with secale, it came to mean rye.^[9] British medieval writers used it of a cereal crop in general, of wheat as distinct from other grains, of rye and of bran.^[10]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato mentions it in his farm manual.^[5][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro mentions it in his work on farming.^[7][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella treats it as a kind of wheat.^[6][3]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it of fine flour.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soft, very white kind of wheat, winter wheat.^[2][7]
2. Fine wheaten flour.^[7][8]
3. (Medieval Latin) Rye.^[9][10]
4. (Medieval Latin) Bran.^[10]

Word family

• silīginārius
• silīgineus

Related words

• siliqua
• silex

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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c 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