foculus Latin · revision 33259

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la focus}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''foculus''' ''m'' (genitive foculī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Plautus has a neuter plural ''focula''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|focus|-ulus|t1=hearth]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan finds no acceptable etymology for [[m|la|focus]]; he rejects Hamp's view that [[m|la|focus]] was formed back from this diminutive as chronologically difficult.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Plautus speaks of dishes kept warm on glowing braziers, ''epulas foveri foculis ferventibus'',^(Lewis & Short 1879) and jokes about leftovers warmed on the brazier of the belly.^(Lewis & Short 1879) De Vaan and Köbler date it from Cato,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who has it of a small coal pan for warming.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a small portable stove or brazier, especially one used at sacrifices.^(OLD 2012) Varro, Cicero and Seneca use it of a small sacrificial hearth, and Livy of a man thrusting his right hand into a fire lit for sacrifice.^(Georges 1913)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny the Elder tells of a likeness drawn on a wall with a dead coal snatched from a brazier.^(Lewis & Short 1879) Juvenal uses it for the fire itself, blown up with puffed cheeks.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) Church Latin has it as a portable stove or chafing dish.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of braziers keeping food warm.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato, of a coal pan.^(Georges 1913)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of a sacrificial fire.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal, of a kitchen fire.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A small portable [[m|en|stove]], [[m|en|brazier]], chafing dish.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A small sacrificial hearth.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(transferred)'' A fire.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[focus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}