uncus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈʊŋ.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈuŋ.kus]^[1]

Forms

uncus m (genitive uncī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *onko-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂onḱ-o- (“hook”).^[2][1] Cognate with Sanskrit अङ्क (aṅká-, “hook, bend”), Ancient Greek ὄγκος (ónkos, “barb of an arrow”) and Old English anga (“hook”), and ancus “crook-armed” and angulus “corner” come from a related root.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato, who lists iron hooks among farm equipment.^[2][4][5] Köbler dates Cato 234–149 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun was a hook used for any purpose, and especially the hook with which the bodies of executed criminals were dragged to the Tiber, as Cicero speaks of the scourge, the hook and the cross.^[3] In building it was a clamp fixing stone facing to a core, and Horace gives Necessity a stern clamp.^[3][6] The adjective uncus meant hooked, curved, as Lucretius' and Virgil's curved ploughshare.^[3][6]

Döderlein says uncus supposes a strong curve, a hook, while curvus is any crookedness.^[7] In medieval Poland and Bohemia uncus, from a Slavic word, was a measure of land.^[8][4] Uncīnus “hook” gave the adjective English uncinate “hooked”.^[1]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato lists iron hooks.^[5][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of the curved ploughshare.^[6][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero speaks of the executioner's hook.^[3][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace gives Necessity a clamp.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hook.^[3]
2. The hook used to drag executed criminals.^[3]
3. A clamp (in building).^[3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A measure of land.^[8]

Adjective

1. Hooked, curved.^[3]

Word family

• uncatus
• unciārius
• uncīnus
• aduncus
• obuncus
• reduncus
• uncipēs
• unculus
• uncātiō
• uncifer

Related words

• ancus
• angulus
• curvus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes curvus (crooked in general), uncus (strongly curved, hooked) and hāmātus (hooked like a fish-hook).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill