stercus

Forms

stercus n (genitive stercoris); third declension^[1] An inscription from Luceria has stircus, and Columella the genitive sterceris.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *sterkos-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sterḱ-o- (“befoulment, excrement”).^[3][1] Cognate with Breton stroñk (“excrement”), Welsh trwnc (“urine”), Hittite ištar(k)-zi (“to ail, afflict”) and Lithuanian ter̃šti (“to soil”).^[3][2] Since the best reading for “dunghill” is sterculīnum, de Vaan rejects the theory that the word continues a form with /kʷ/.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,^[3][4] who has a man ordered to clear the dung away from a door.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the excrement of animals, dung or muck, and especially manure as a fertilizer, as in Cato's advice to put pig's urine or dung at a tree's roots.^[2][5] Vitruvius uses it for the dross left after heating an ore.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “dung, dunghill, muck”.^[6] Lewis & Short give fimus and merda as synonyms.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of dung at a door.^[2][3][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato the Elder of dung as manure.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of dross from ore.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Dung, excrement, muck.^[2][5][1]
2. Manure.^[2]
3. Dross from smelting.^[2]

Word family

• stercorārius
• stercoreus
• stercorō
• stercorōsus
• sterculīnum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson