vagina Latin · revision 32658

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [waːˈɡiː.na], [waːˈɡiː.naː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [vaˈd͡ʒiː.na], [vaˈd͡ʒiː.na]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''vāgīna''' ''f'' (genitive vāgīnae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(de Vaan 2008)^(Etymonline) De Vaan sets up [[itc-pro|*wāg-īnā-]] with a question mark; the OLD and Wiktionary suggest a link with [[lt|vóžti|t=to cover]], which would make the first meaning cover, a proposal de Vaan calls gratuitous.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Lewis & Short compare [[m|la|vās|t=vessel]].^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Plautus, de Vaan from Varro.^(Köbler 2010)^(de Vaan 2008) In the OLD's earliest quotation Cicero has a man draw his sword from the sheath and put it back covered in blood.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is the sheath of a sword, a scabbard, in Cicero, Caesar, Virgil and Horace.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is applied to other protective cases: Pliny the Elder recommends ash for the sheaths of augers.^(OLD 2012) It is also a natural structure like a sheath: Pliny has lions walking with their claws hidden in sheaths, and the husk of an ear of grain.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Wiktionary also notes a euphemistic use for the female passage.^(Wiktionary) Church Latin glosses it sheath, vagina, scabbard, husk, hull, holder.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|vagina]] comes from it as a medical term, from the 1680s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of a sword's sheath.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the sheaths of claws.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1680s – English [[m|en|vagina|alt=vagina]] as a medical term.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|sheath]], [[m|en|scabbard]]; any protective case.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # A natural sheath, as of a claw; the [[m|en|husk]] of an ear of grain.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # Euphemistically, the [[m|en|vagina]].^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ēvāgīnō]]

+ * [[vāgīnālis]]

+ * [[vāgīnula]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ēvāgīnātiō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}