spina

Forms

spīna f (genitive spīnae); first declension^[1] Varro has a variant spīnus.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *speinā-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *spein-.^[2] De Vaan thinks it may share a base *sp-i(H)- with spīca (“ear of grain”), and compares, perhaps, Umbrian spinia, and Latvian spina (“rod”) and Old High German spinela (“hairpin”).^[2] The OLD also compares the Umbrian word.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato, who has thorn bushes to be cleared.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is a thorn or prickle: Virgil writes of the paliurus rising with sharp spines, and Lucretius of a snake leaving its skin on thorns.^[3][4] Figuratively Cicero calls the subtleties of dividing and defining thorns.^[3] It is also a thorn bush, a spine of an animal, as Cicero writes of creatures bristling with spines, and the backbone: Varro wants a dog's spine neither prominent nor curved.^[3] Wiktionary adds the low barrier along the centre of a racecourse, and a toothpick.^[1] Medieval Latin has it for the bung of a cask.^[5] Through Old French it gave English spine, the backbone, about 1400.^[6]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of thorn bushes.^[3][2][7]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of a dog's spine.^[3][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of thorny subtleties.^[3][7]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the spines of a shrub.^[3][7]
• c. 1400 – English borrows it through Old French as spine.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thorn, prickle; figuratively, a thorny question.^[3][4][8][1]
2. A thorn bush.^[3][1]
3. A spine or prickle of an animal; a fishbone.^[3][1]
4. The backbone, spine;^[3][1] spīna sacra, the sacrum; the back.^[3][1]
5. The barrier along the centre of a circus; a toothpick.^[1]
6. (Medieval Latin) A bung.^[5]

Word family

• spīnālis
• spīnēscō
• spīnētum
• spīneus
• spīniger
• spīnōsus
• spīnula
• spīnifer

Related words

• spīca
• English spine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson