faex Latin · revision 32256

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=234–149 BC, Cato}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈfae̯ks]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈfɛks]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''faex''' ''f'' (genitive faecis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''fēx'', ''fēcis''.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)

+ Charisius gives the genitive plural ''faecum''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan has no etymology for it, and Köbler follows Walde and Hofmann in calling it uncertain.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary suggests a borrowing from a substrate language, and rejects a connection with [[ine-pro|*dʰrā́ks|t=dregs, sediment]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who tells the farmer to rub the sides of the jars so that the lees do not stick and explains how to draw wine off the dregs.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Cato it is the sediment of wine, the lees or tartar, and the dregs at the bottom of the jar;^(OLD 2012) Horace's “jars drunk down to the dregs” uses it of the very end of the wine.^(OLD 2012) It extends to the sediment of any liquid, slag or dross, and any impure admixture, as Ovid's pure upper air that has nothing of earthly dregs.^(OLD 2012) Contemptuously it is the dregs or scum of people, as in Cicero's guilds stirred up from all the dregs of the city and slaves.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Wiktionary adds salt of tartar, a brine for pickling and rouge.^(Wiktionary) Church Latin glosses it mire, ooze or dregs,^(Stelten 1995) and Medieval Latin uses it in brewing of the mixture of herbs used to ferment beer.^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary) It survives in Italian [[m|it|feccia]],^(Wiktionary) and its plural is the source of English [[m|en|feces]] (c. 1400, “dregs”), which took the sense of excrement only in the 1630s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato of wine lees.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of the dregs of the city.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of a jar drunk to the dregs.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 1400 – Its plural is borrowed into English as [[m|en|feces]], “dregs”.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|lees|alt=Lees]], [[m|en|dregs]] or [[m|en|tartar]] of wine; the sediment at the bottom of a jar.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The sediment of any liquid; slag, [[m|en|dross]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Any impure admixture.^(OLD 2012)

+ # Contemptuously, the dregs or scum of people; anything base.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Brine used for pickling; [[m|en|rouge]] used as make-up.^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' In [[m|en|brewing]], a mixture of herbs used to ferment beer, [[m|en|grout]].^(Niermeyer 1976)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dēfaecō]]

+ * [[faecārius]]

+ * [[faecātus]]

+ * [[faeceus]]

+ * [[faecinius]]

+ * [[faecula]]

+ * [[faeculentus]]

+ * [[infaeco]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|feces]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}