testu Latin · revision 34448

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=derivation|attested=234–149 BC, Cato|origins=la testa}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈtɛs.tuː], [ˈtɛs.tʊ]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [ˈtɛs.tu]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''testū̆''' ''n'' (genitive testūs or testū); fourth declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It also appears as ''testum'', genitive ''testī'', of the second declension.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ Georges and Conte treat ''testū'' as indeclinable.^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[der|la|testa|t=piece of baked clay, earthenware vessel]].^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) The OLD only compares that noun,^(OLD 2012) and de Vaan lists this word among its derivatives.^(de Vaan 2008) He rejects a derivation of the noun from the root [[ine-pro|*teḱ-|t=to build]] and thinks it is probably a loanword, as words for vessels often are.^(de Vaan 2008) Georges suggested that it stands for an older ⟨tostu⟩, just as he explained the noun as ⟨tosta⟩.^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan and the OLD record it first in Cato,^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012) who tells the reader to bake bread gently on a hot hearth under a ''testu'': ''panem in foco caldo sub testu coquito leniter''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was an earthenware pot or, especially, an earthenware lid placed over food to be cooked and heaped with hot coals, as Cato describes for bread and cakes.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Varro uses it of a pot in which something was cooked, and Ovid of a broken pot in which a country woman carries fire.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' imagines Prometheus going round his neighbours with a ''testum'' to beg embers.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder heats pig dung under one and also mentions a lid of bronze, ''sub aereo testo''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Sulpicius Severus uses the form ''testum'' of anything made of baked earth.^(Georges 1913) In Gregory of Tours and in medieval Latin ''testum'' means the skull, the head.^(Conte 2010)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of the lid for baking bread.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a cooking pot.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a broken pot carrying fire.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder mentions a lid of bronze.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 538/539–594 AD – Gregory of Tours uses ''testum'' of the skull.^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|earthenware]] pot.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+ # An earthenware [[m|en|lid]] placed over food to be cooked and heaped with hot coals; also such a lid of metal.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' Anything made of baked earth.^(Georges 1913)

+ # ''(Late Latin, Medieval Latin)'' The [[m|en|skull]], the head.^(Conte 2010)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[testuācium]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[testa]]

+ * [[testūdō]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}