Etymologically
Log in

syllaba

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 03:13. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈsyl.la.ba][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈsil.la.ba][1]

Forms

syllaba f (genitive syllabae); first declension[1] It is also spelled sullaba.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ, “syllable; a gathering together”).[4][2][1][5] Köbler connects the Greek noun with συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to gather together”) and σύν (sún, “together”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short first quote Plautus, in the Bacchides.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a syllable: Cicero speaks of a syllable that is too short or too long and of the number of syllables, Horace of a long syllable placed after a short one, and Ovid of a first syllable that is short.[2] Cicero calls a lawyer a syllable-catcher, a captious quibbler over words.[2] In the plural Martial uses it of verses, saying that Verona loves the syllables of its learned poet.[2] Wiktionary also gives the sense vowel.[1] In medieval Latin the plural can mean a letter, an epistle.[7] English syllable (late 14th century) came through Anglo-French ⟨sillable⟩, an altered form of silabe, from the Latin word.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of long and short syllables and of a quibbling lawyer.[2][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a long syllable after a short.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a poet's verses.[2][6]
  • late 14th century – English syllable.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A syllable;[4][2][1][3] auceps syllabārum, a quibbler over words.[4][2][1][3]
  2. A vowel.[1]
  3. (plural) Verses, poems.[2][1]
  4. (Medieval Latin, plural) A letter, epistle.[7]

Word family

  • bisyllabus
  • syllabātim
  • English syllable

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com