Etymologically
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vatillum

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Forms

vatillum n (genitive vatillī); second declension[1] Also spelled batillum, the later form, found in glossaries;[2][3] Georges says vatillum is the spelling of the best manuscripts almost everywhere.[2][3] Marcellus Empiricus has a masculine batillus.[4][3] Köbler also records quatillum.[5]

Etymology

It is probably a diminutive of vannus (“winnowing basket”), formed like scabellum beside scamnum.[6][1] The OLD and Walde–Hofmann derive it from a pre-form with the cluster /tn/,[6][7] but de Vaan marks the link with a question mark and notes that it has been rejected because the meanings differ.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro, writing on farming, has the keeper of peacocks go round with a small shovel and clear away the dung.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The shovel was also used for hot coals: Horace laughs at a scribe's insignia, among them a pan of coals, prūnaeque vatillum,[6][4] and Pliny the Elder describes red-hot iron pans on which silver was tested for purity.[6][2] Apicius and Marcellus Empiricus use it for a pan for cooking or roasting.[2] In the Vulgate it is a coal shovel among the utensils of the altar,[2] and Stelten glosses it as a fire shovel, chafing dish and incense pan.[8]

Italian badile (“shovel”) goes back to the form batillum.[9]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it for a dung shovel.[6][5]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace mentions a pan of coals.[6][5]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes iron pans used to test silver.[6][5]
  • 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it for a coal shovel.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small shovel, as for clearing dung.[6][4][9]
  2. A shovel or pan for live coals; a chafing dish or incense pan.[6][4][8]
  3. An iron pan heated red-hot, used to test the purity of metals.[6][9]
  4. A pan for cooking or roasting.[2]

Usage notes

Georges cites a figurative use in Plautus' Trinummus from the text of one edition.[2] In another passage of Varro's work on farming, Keil's text reads bacillum.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier