sulco

Forms

sulcō (present infinitive sulcāre, perfect active sulcāvī, supine sulcātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sulcus (“furrow”) + -ō.^[2][1] De Vaan derives ⟨sulcus⟩ from Proto-Italic *solko- and Proto-Indo-European *solk-o- (“furrow”), which he prefers to a form with a syllabic ⟨l⟩ because of the Greek cognate.^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek ὁλκός (holkós, “furrow; hauling engine”), Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to draw, drag”) and Old English sulh (“plough”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro,^[3] whose book on farming has ditches furrowed so that rainwater can drain away.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to plough, to drive furrows across land:^[2][5] Tibullus writes of ploughing the fields at a mistress's command, Columella advises ploughing across a slope, and Lucan writes of fields once furrowed by Camillus' plough.^[2][4] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic and post-Augustan, absent from Cicero and Caesar.^[5]

Figuratively it meant to cleave or traverse: Virgil's ships furrow the salt sea with their long keels, Ovid's snake god furrows the sand, and Lucan's Perseus furrows the air in flight.^[2][5] Ovid has Juno furrow her skin with wrinkles,^[2][6] and Ammianus uses it of sides scored by the lash and of tattooing.^[5][4] Venantius Fortunatus uses it for working out a written text.^[5] Ecclesiastical Latin kept the sense to plough.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of furrowing ditches.^[2][8]
• c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus uses it of ploughing fields.^[2][8]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of ships cleaving the sea.^[2][8]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of wrinkles.^[2][8]
• c. 390 AD – Ammianus uses it of tattooing.^[4][8]
• 536–c. 610 AD – Venantius Fortunatus uses it of working out a text.^[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To plough, drive furrows across (land).^[2][5]
2. To cleave, traverse (the sea, sand or air).^[2][5]
3. To furrow (the skin with wrinkles); to score; to tattoo.^[2][4]
4. To make (a furrow, ditch or groove).^[2][4]
5. (Late Latin) To work out (a text).^[5]

Word family

• dēsulcō
• īnsulcō
• persulco
• resulco
• sulcāmen
• sulcātor
• crispisulcans

Related words

• sulcātōrius
• sulcus
• arō
• exarō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de