truncus

Forms

truncus (feminine trunca, neuter truncum); first and second declension (adjective)^[2][1]; truncus m (genitive truncī); second declension (noun)^[2][1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[3][1] De Vaan takes the adjective “maimed, lopped” as the starting point, although the noun “trunk, torso” and verbs such as obtruncō (“to cut down”) are recorded earlier, and he sees no good reason to connect it with Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (þreihan, “to press”) or Lithuanian triñkti (“to thrust”); he also rejects Hamp's “pertaining to a tree”.^[3] The OLD compares Lithuanian trenkiù, Welsh trŵch and Middle High German strunc, and Köbler a root Proto-Indo-European *trenk- (“to push”);^[2][4][1] Wiktionary suggests Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to cut”).^[2][4][1] The noun is formed from the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Lucilius as the first author for the noun: collō caput sustentātur, truncus sustinētur coxendicibus, “the head is held up by the neck, the trunk by the hips”.^[3][2] The adjective he finds first in Varro.^[3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it is maimed or mutilated, as Catullus' headless body sinking at the knee, of trees lopped of their branches, as Varro's hedge of trimmed trees, and of things marred, as Virgil's broken weapons.^[2] Of limbs it is lopped off, and of growth stunted: Propertius' dwarf waves his stumpy hands.^[2] By extension it is lacking some part: Livy's city is maimed, without senate, people or magistrates.^[2] Lewis and Short call it mostly poetic, with mutilus and mancus as synonyms.^[5]

As a noun it is the human trunk or torso, the trunk of a tree (Cicero), and in Vitruvius the shaft of a column or the die of a pedestal.^[2] Döderlein contrasts it with stirps, the living stock of a tree, as the bare trunk.^[6]

Church Latin has it as “maimed, mutilated, imperfect” and as a noun “stump, trunk”.^[7] Medieval Latin uses the noun for an iron tool, an offertory box, a box or chest, a fuller's block and other blocks.^[8] English trunk (mid-15th century), first “box, case”, comes from it through Anglo-French and Old French tronc, an alms box.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius of the human trunk.^[3][2][4]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of lopped trees.^[3][2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the trunk of a tree.^[2][4]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus of a headless body.^[2][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of the shaft of a column.^[2][4]
• mid-15th century – English trunk.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Maimed, mutilated;^[2][1][7] (of trees) lopped.^[2][1][7]
2. (of limbs) Cut off; stunted.^[2]
3. Lacking a part, defective.^[2][7]

Noun

1. The human trunk, torso.^[2][1]
2. The trunk of a tree; a stump.^[2][1][7]
3. (architecture) The shaft of a column; the die of a pedestal.^[2]
4. (figurative) A blockhead.^[1]
5. (Medieval Latin) An offertory box; a box, chest; a fuller's block.^[8]

Word family

• subtruncus
• truncō
• trunculus

Related words

• obtruncō
• stirps
• English trunk

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 v Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com