supellex

Forms

supellē̆x f (genitive supellē̆ctilis); third declension^[1] It is also spelled supp-;^[2] Festus cites a nominative supellectilis, and the ablative is supellectile, less often supellectilī.^[2] The nominative supellectilis is also in Eutropius and Salvian.^[3]

Etymology

It seems to come from super and legō “to gather”, with the other cases influenced by an adjective stem in ⟨-ili-⟩.^[2][3] Wiktionary sets up an unattested *superlegō.^[1] De Vaan traces legō to Proto-Italic *leg-e- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-e/o- (“to collect”), comparing Ancient Greek λέγω (légō, “to collect, count; speak”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who has a furrier's kit, and plays on a woman's supellex as her loud shouting.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the furnishings of a house, furniture and household goods, used only in the singular; a title of the Digest deals with legacies of it.^[2][3] It is also the outfit needed for a calling: Varro wants the farm equipment listed in town and country, Livy has tents and military gear, Seneca a doctor's great outfit, and an inscription names an official in charge of camp equipment.^[2] Transferred, sometimes in scorn, it is a person's stock of ideas, words and qualities: Cicero never saw such a rich outfit in an orator, Seneca calls the Ideas Plato's own furniture, and Quintilian has a copious store of words gathered by reading.^[2] Church Latin glosses it furniture, household goods and apparatus,^[6] and in Medieval Latin it is the produce of an estate.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a furrier's kit.^[2][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of farm equipment.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of an orator's stock.^[2][5]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian of a store of words.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The furnishings of a house, furniture, household goods.^[2][3][1][6]
2. The outfit needed for a calling, paraphernalia, equipment.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) A person's stock of words, ideas or qualities.^[2][1]
4. (Medieval Latin) The produce of an estate.^[7]

Word family

• supellectilārius
• supellē̆cticārius

Related words

• legō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill