sponda

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈspɔn.da]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈspɔn.da]^[1]

Forms

sponda f (genitive spondae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *spondā- (“frame”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *spond-h₂-, probably from the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to spin”) of pendō.^[2][1] It is an Italo-Celtic word, cognate with Old Irish sond (“stick”) and Welsh ffon (“stick”), and with Old Church Slavonic пѧдь (pędĭ, “span”).^[2] The Germanic words for “bucket”, such as Old Norse spann, are not related, since they point to a different consonant and meaning.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro.^[2][3] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant the frame of a bed or couch, as in Ovid's tale of Baucis and Philemon, and by transfer the bed or couch itself, as in Virgil and Horace.^[4][5][6] Martial uses it of a bier.^[6] Isidore of Seville says it was the outer side of a bed, the pluteus being the inner.^[7]

In Medieval Latin it meant a coffin and its lid, and a bank or embankment.^[8] It survives in Italian sponda “side, bank”.^[1]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a couch.^[5][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a bed frame.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The frame of a bed or couch.^[4]
2. A bed, couch; a bier.^[4][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A coffin; a bank.^[8]

Related words

• pendō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill