tibicen

Forms

tībīcen m (genitive tībīcinis); third declension^[1] An inscription from Ostia has the nominative tībīcō.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin tībia (“pipe”) + -cen (“player”), contracted from an older ⟨tībiicen⟩; the second element is from canō (“to sing, play”).^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs the compound as Proto-Italic *tībio-kan- (“playing on a reed pipe”).^[4] He finds no good Indo-European etymology for tībia, which may have come, like Ancient Greek σίφων (síphōn, “tube, siphon”), from an unknown source; canō goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kh₂n-e- (“to sing”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Casina: “piper, while they bring the new bride out here...”.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is a player on the tibia, the Roman reed pipe; ad tībīcinem is to the accompaniment of a piper.^[2][3] Cicero says that a piper whose pipes give no sound thinks they should be thrown away.^[3] It also means a prop or strut shoring up a building, as Ovid has a farmhouse standing on a prop.^[2][3][1] In Church Latin it is glossed minstrel, piper or entertainer.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a wedding piper.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a piper and his pipes.^[3][5]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a prop holding up a farmhouse.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piper, player on the tibia, flute player.^[2][3][6][1]
2. A prop or strut shoring up a building.^[2][1]

Word family

• tībīcĭnĭum
• tībīcinō

Related words

• tībia
• tībīcina

Usage notes

The feminine is tībīcina, a female piper, which de Vaan dates from Plautus.^[4][6]

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson