ulna

Forms

ulna f (genitive ulnae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *olenā- (“forearm”),^[2][1] from an n-stem of the Proto-Indo-European word for the elbow, which de Vaan reconstructs as Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃l-én- (“elbow”) or with other ablaut grades; he suggests that it was first an l-stem to which an n-stem was made already in Proto-Indo-European.^[2] Wiktionary calls the reconstruction uncertain.^[1]

Cognate with Old Irish uilen (“angle”), Welsh elin, Ancient Greek ὠλένη (ōlénē, “elbow”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (aleina, “cubit”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Catullus on,^[2][4] meaning the arm: tremula patris dormientis in ulnā, “sleeping in a father's rocking arm”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In poetry it is the forearm or simply the arm, especially as used for holding or embracing, in Propertius, Ovid, Lucan, Silius and Statius;^[3][5] Pliny the Elder uses it of the elbow.^[5] Döderlein describes it as the whole arm, the measure of an ell, as against lacertus (upper arm), bracchium (forearm) and cubitus (elbow).^[6] As a measure of length it was the ell, in Virgil, Horace and Ovid, and in Pliny the Elder as much as the outstretched arms can clasp, a fathom.^[3][5]

Medieval writers kept the arm, often in figurative embraces of mercy or grace, and the ell in many local standards, including the king's iron ell;^[7] Niermeyer gives it also as a measure of land.^[8] The anatomical sense, the inner bone of the forearm, was taken into English from medical Latin in the 1540s.^[9]

Timeline

• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it for a father's arm.^[5][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it as a measure of length.^[3][5][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the elbow and for a fathom.^[5][4]
• 1540s – English borrows it from medical Latin for the bone of the forearm.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The forearm, the arm (especially in holding or embracing).^[3][5]
2. The elbow.^[5]
3. An ell, a measure of length; a fathom.^[3][5]
4. (Medieval Latin) A measure of land.^[8]
5. (anatomy) The ulna, the inner bone of the forearm.^[1][9]

Related words

• English ell
• English ulna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com