patella Latin · revision 33999

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=116–27 BC, Varro|origins=la patina}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [paˈtɛl.la]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [paˈtɛl.la]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''patella''' ''f'' (genitive patellae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|patina|-la|t1=dish, pan]], a diminutive.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Etymonline) The TLL derives it from that noun or from [[m|la|patera|t=bowl]].^(TLL) Varro explained such dishes from [[m|la|patulus|t=open, spread out]], and Isidore of Seville likewise described the dish as a wide-mouthed pot.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Varro,^(Köbler 2010) whose Menippean satires say that a dish set before a hungry man is a challenge to the fishponds of Naples.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It is a small dish or plate, used also for cooking:^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Varro has onions cooked in dishes, Horace and Martial use it, and Pliny the Elder mustard boiled in pans.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) An inscription uses it of a military decoration for bravery, perhaps a small shield.^(OLD 2012) Celsus calls the small soft bone that covers the knee joint the ''patella'', from its shape.^(OLD 2012)^(Etymonline) It also names a disease of the olive tree.^(Wiktionary) In medieval Latin it is a salt pan or a kind of lamp.^(Niermeyer 1976) Through Old French and Catalan it gave Spanish [[m|es|paella]], and English took [[m|en|patella]] for the kneecap in the 1690s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro of a dish and of cooking in dishes.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ * 14–37 AD – Celsus of the kneecap.^(OLD 2012)

+ * 1690s – Borrowed into English as [[m|en|patella]], "kneecap".^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A small [[m|en|dish]] or [[m|en|plate]]; a pan for cooking.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+ # A military decoration for bravery, perhaps a small [[m|en|shield]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # The [[m|en|kneecap]], patella.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)

+ # A disease of the olive tree.^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A salt pan; a kind of [[m|en|lamp]].^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[patellārius]]

+ * [[patellula]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[patina]]

+ * [[patera]]

+ * [[en|paella]]

+ * [[en|patella]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Arnobius and Augustine name goddesses ''Patella'' and ''Patellāna'', set over the opening of the grain.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}