villus
Forms
villus m (genitive villī); second declension[1] Varro has the variant vellus.[2]
Etymology
It is probably a dialect form of vellus (“fleece”).[2][1] De Vaan lists ⟨vellus⟩ among the derivatives of vellō (“to pluck”), though the connection is disputed.[3] Köbler refers it to Pokorny's root Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“hair, wool”).[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Köbler dates it from Cicero.[4] The OLD cites Lucilius on soft rugs with huge tufts, amphitapae villis ingentibus.[2]
Semantic evolution
It is a woolly or shaggy growth of hair, a tuft, especially of animals:[2][5] Cicero, Virgil, Ovid and Martial use it of beasts' hair.[5] It is also the nap of cloth, as in Lucilius and in Virgil's napkins with shorn nap, and mossy growth on trees;[2][5] Pliny the Elder uses it of cotton.[5] Its modern scientific use, with the plural villi, for long slender hairs gave English villus in 1704.[6]
Timeline
- c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius, of the tufts on rugs.[2][4]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero, of animal hair.[5][4]
- 70–19 BC – Virgil, of animal hair and the nap of napkins.[5][4]
- 1704 – Taken into English as villus.[6]
Meanings
Noun
- Shaggy hair, a tuft of hair, especially of animals.[2][5][1]
- The nap of cloth; a mossy growth on trees.[2][5]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com