squilla

Forms

squilla f (genitive squillae); first declension^[1] Apuleius spells the crustacean scilla, and Varro spells the plant squilla.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σκίλλα (skílla, “squill”),^[1][3] and the OLD takes it to be probably the same word as scilla (“squill”).^[2] Beekes calls the Greek word an unexplained foreign word, probably Pre-Greek, and notes that it passed into Latin as the plant name.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Lucilius, quoted by Cicero, as the name of a shellfish.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it covered several crustaceans, such as shrimps, prawns and crayfish;^[2][6] Cicero describes the small squilla that lives with the pinna mussel and guards it,^[5] and Horace and Martial also mention it.^[5] As a spelling of scilla it also named the squill or sea onion.^[2][1]

In Medieval Latin it was also the name of a fish.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it for a shellfish.^[5][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the spelling squilla for the squill.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero describes the squilla that guards the pinna.^[5][3]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial mentions it.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crustacean, such as a shrimp, prawn or crayfish.^[2][5]
2. The squill or sea onion (a spelling of scilla).^[2][1]
3. (Medieval Latin) A kind of fish.^[7]

Related words

• English squilla

Usage notes

Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin also had a squilla “small hand bell”, rung in monasteries,^[8][1] which Niermeyer refers to scella.^[7] The Roman cognomen Squilla comes from the common noun.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson