Etymologically
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surculus

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Forms

surculus m (genitive surculī); second declension[1] A contracted surclus occurs in Varro.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin surus (“post, stake”) + -culus, a diminutive, as Paulus' epitome of Festus already says.[2][1][3] De Vaan finds no certain etymology for surus: if its vowel was long it may be connected with sūra (“calf of the leg”), and if short it might be cognate with Sanskrit स्वरु (sváru, “sacrificial post”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato uses it in the De agri cultura of a sprig of Pontic wormwood and of vine cuttings put into a stock in grafting.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It is a slender woody shoot or twig: Virgil, Columella, Pliny the Elder and Celsus use it, and Cicero has breaking off a twig.[2][5] Celsus applies it to a splinter in a wound.[2] In farming it is a scion or cutting used in grafting and propagation,[2][5] and Columella uses it of any low woody plant.[2] In one quotation it is applied to the Spartan staff, the Ancient Greek σκυτάλη (skutálē).[2] Döderlein counts it among the words for twigs, as opposed to the boughs (rāmī) of a tree.[6] Varro has the contracted form surclus.[2]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato, of a sprig and of a graft.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of breaking off a twig.[5][3]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil, of shoots.[5][3]
  • 14–37 AD – Celsus, of a splinter.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A young twig, shoot, sprig; a splinter; a prepared stick.[2][5][1]
  2. (agriculture) A scion, graft, cutting.[2][5][1]
  3. A low woody plant.[2][1]
  • surus
  • English surcle

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 l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b 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 f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper