taenia

Forms

taenia f (genitive taeniae); first declension^[1] An older spelling is taenea.^[2] Virgil and Apuleius have the contracted ablative plural taenis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ταινία (tainía, “band, headband”).^[2][1][4] Beekes thinks the Greek word is probably related in the end to τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”), though the details of the formation are unclear;^[5] Köbler also compares that verb and the root Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Ennius, in the words cum corōnā et taeniīs “with a garland and ribbons”,^[2][4] and Cato uses it for an intestinal worm.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is a ribbon or band, especially one worn on the head, with vitta as its Latin equivalent.^[3] The grammarian Verrius Flaccus explained it as a Greek word for a woollen ornament on the head of someone being honoured.^[3] It was extended to a string or cord, a bandage or breast band, and a strip of any material.^[2]

Vitruvius uses it for the fillet of a Doric entablature.^[2] Pliny the Elder calls taeniae the pale streaks on the sea above sunken reefs, or the reefs themselves.^[2] The sense of an intestinal worm, the tapeworm, is already in Cato.^[2]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it for ribbons worn with a garland.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for an intestinal worm.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it for an architectural fillet.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for streaks on the sea caused by reefs.^[2][4]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius uses it for the woollen cords of a whip.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ribbon, headband or fillet.^[2][3]
2. A string or cord.^[2]
3. A bandage; a breast band.^[2]
4. A strip of any material.^[2]
5. (architecture) A fillet, the band at the top of a Doric architrave.^[2][1]
6. A streak on the surface of the sea caused by a sunken reef, or the reef itself.^[2]
7. An intestinal worm, a tapeworm.^[2][1]

Word family

• taeniensis
• taeniola
• taeniātus

Related words

• English taenia

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 l m n o p q r s t u 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill