stipula

Forms

stipula f (genitive stipulae); first declension^[1] Inscriptions have stupula and stupla, and Varro has stupla.^[2]

Etymology

Lewis & Short take it as a diminutive of stīpes “post, trunk”.^[3] De Vaan lists it under stips (“small coin”) and traces it to Proto-Italic *stip-elo- (“straw”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *stip- (“stalk”) that he marks as uncertain; he derives stipulor “to exact a promise” from the noun, first meaning “to draw or cut straws”.^[4] Köbler relates it to stīpō “to press together”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Terence,^[4][5] in whom a man threatens to make another gather straw at midday.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the stalk of a cereal or legume: Virgil has grain swelling with milk in the green stalk.^[2][3] Collectively it is the stubble left after reaping, or straw: Varro speaks of leaving stubble for the gleaners.^[2][3] It is also a hollow stalk played as a pipe: in Virgil's Eclogues a shepherd is mocked for murdering a wretched tune on a screeching straw.^[2] Döderlein contrasts it with culmus, the stalk as the part that bears the ear, while stipula is the worthless part, the stubble.^[6] Church Latin glosses it stubble, straw, stalk.^[7] Etymonline derives English stubble (c. 1300) through estuble from reduced forms of the word, Medieval Latin ⟨stubula⟩ and Vulgar Latin ⟨*stupla⟩; stipule (1793) came through French.^[8]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence of gathering straw.^[2][4][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of stubble left for gleaning and the form stupla.^[2][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of green stalks and of a straw pipe.^[2][3][5]
• c. 1300 – English stubble, from reduced forms of the word through Old French.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stalk of a cereal plant or legume.^[2][3][1]
2. Stubble left after reaping; straw.^[2][3][1][7]
3. A hollow stalk or reed played as a pipe.^[2][1]

Related words

• stips
• stipulor
• English stubble
• English stipule

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com