cicuta Latin · revision 32917

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

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [kɪˈkuː.ta]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃiˈkuː.ta]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cicūta''' ''f'' (genitive cicūtae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary suggests a substrate word shared with [[en|kex]], [[kw|kegis]] and [[cy|cegid|t=hemlock]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Cato,^(Köbler 2010) who tells the farmer to pull dwarf elder and hemlock out of the cornfield.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is hemlock, probably ''Cicuta virosa'' or ''Conium maculatum'', described by Pliny the Elder.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(OLD 2012) Its juice was a poison given to criminals, as in Cicero and Lucretius, and Persius calls Socrates the master taken off by a dreadful draught of it.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Horace also mentions it as a purge for bile.^(OLD 2012) The hollow stalk made a shepherd's pipe: Lucretius says the zephyrs first taught country people to blow into hollow stems.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) Church Latin glosses it hemlock.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato of hemlock in the cornfield.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius of hemlock as poison and of hemlock pipes.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace of hemlock as a purge.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 34–62 AD – Persius of Socrates' draught of hemlock.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|hemlock|alt=Hemlock]] (the plant).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # Hemlock juice, as a [[m|en|poison]] or as a purge.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A [[m|en|pipe]] made from a hemlock stalk.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[cicūticen]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Cicūta'' is also the name of a moneylender in Horace's ''Satires''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(TLL)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}