offa Latin · revision 34249

+ {{infobox|confidence=unknown|attested=c. 235–200 BC, Naevius}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈɔf.fa]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈɔf.fa]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''offa''' ''f'' (genitive offae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010) Wiktionary suggests that it may be Celtic, mentioning proposed links with [[cy|yfflon|t=pieces, bits]] and [[m|cy|oddf|t=knot, bulb]].^(Wiktionary) Festus says that the ancients used the word for a piece cut off in the shape of a ball, like porridge rolled by hand, and Isidore of Seville that it is properly a piece bitten off.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler records it first in Naevius,^(Köbler 2010) who has ''penita offa'', which Festus explains as a piece of meat with the tail.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It means a bit or morsel of food, especially a small ball or cake of flour.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Plautus has a character ask for a kiss instead of an ''offa'', as one throws to barking dogs, and Virgil has a sop drugged with honey thrown to Cerberus.^(TLL)^(Georges 1913) Ennius, quoted by Pliny the Elder, tells of fathers snatching a morsel from their crying children, and Cato used the proverb ''inter os et offam'', “between mouth and morsel”.^(TLL)^(Georges 1913) Varro and Columella use it of balls of feed for birds and animals.^(TLL) It is applied to a lump of meat, as Plautus' ''offa porcina'', to a pellet of another substance, as Pliny's gum rolled into pellets, and to any shapeless mass: Pliny the Elder uses it of a shapeless thing in the sea, and Juvenal of abortions and of a swelling on the face.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Persius has it figuratively of a lump of verse.^(Georges 1913) It survived in Old Italian and Sardinian and in Old French, from which Basque borrowed it.^(TLL) Medieval writers in Britain use it of a morsel, of sops in wine, of the lump that choked Daniel's dragon, of the morsel taken in an ordeal, and of a lump of flesh.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 235–200 BC – Naevius has ''penita offa''.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 204–169 BC – Ennius tells of fathers snatching a morsel from their children.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses the proverb ''inter os et offam''.^(TLL)^(Georges 1913)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 70–19 BC – Virgil has a drugged sop thrown to Cerberus.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * Medieval Latin – It names the morsel taken in an ordeal.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|morsel]], bit of food; especially a small ball or cake of flour, a [[m|en|dumpling]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A piece of meat.^(Georges 1913)^(TLL)

+ # A lump or [[m|en|pellet]] of another substance.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # A shapeless mass; an [[m|en|abortion]]; a [[m|en|swelling]] from an injury.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A [[m|en|sop]] in wine; the morsel taken in a judicial [[m|en|ordeal]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ofella]]

+ * [[offarius]]

+ * [[offātim]]

+ * [[offula]]

+ * [[offla]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In Medieval Latin ''Offa'' is also a man's name, corresponding to [[ang|Offa]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}