ansa Latin · revision 33097

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=ine-pro *h₂ens-h₂-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈãː.sa]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈan.sa]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ānsa''' ''f'' (genitive ānsae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|itc-pro|*ansā-|t=handle]], [[inh|ine-pro|*h₂ens-h₂-|t=handle, grip]].^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[lt|ąsà|t=handle of a pot]] and [[lv|ùosa|t=handle of a pot]], and, with other suffixes, [[grc|ἡνία|tr=hēnía|t=reins]] and [[non|æs|t=hole for shoe-strings]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012) De Vaan rejects an older link with a root meaning "to grab", which is now reconstructed in a form that cannot give the Latin noun.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who in the ''Persa'' uses it figuratively: a man is looking for a handle, an excuse to undo the deal.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its basic sense is the handle of a cup, jar or similar vessel: Cato warns not to fill amphorae above the level of the lowest handles, and Virgil and Ovid use it of cups.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) It is also the handle of a door, as in Petronius, and a ship's tiller.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) In technical writers it is the free end of a rope (Vitruvius), a loop on a bandage (Celsus), and a clamp, the hook of a steelyard or a fish hook: Vitruvius has wall faces bound with iron clamps and lead.^(OLD 2012) Figuratively it is an opening or opportunity, as in Plautus and often in Cicero.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Stelten gives "opportunity, occasion, handle" for Church Latin.^(Stelten 1995) The ''Appendix Probi'' censures the spelling ''asa'': ''ansa nōn asa'',^(TLL)^(Appendix Probi) and the TLL notes [[es|asa]] and [[pt|aza]] as descendants of that form.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a handle for an excuse.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato of the handles of amphorae.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of rope ends and clamps.^(OLD 2012)

+ * before 66 AD – Petronius of a door handle.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|handle]] (of a cup, jar or other vessel); the handle of a door; a [[m|en|tiller]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The free end of a rope; a loop; a [[m|en|clamp]], the hook of a steelyard, a fish hook.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(figurative)'' An opening, handle, [[m|en|opportunity]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ansatus]]

+ * [[ānsula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}