stillicidium Latin · revision 36674

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=96–55 BC, Lucretius|origins=la stīlla, la cadō}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''stīllicidium''' ''n'' (genitive stīllicidiī or stīllicidī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Also spelled ''stīlicidium''.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|stīlla|cadō|-ium|t1=drop|t2=to fall]], “a falling of drops”.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) Varro already explained it as what falls drop by drop.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ De Vaan takes [[m|la|stīlla]] as a diminutive [[itc-pro|*stīr-lā-]] beside [[m|la|stīria|t=icicle]], although that word is attested only in Imperial Latin.^(de Vaan 2008) [[m|la|cadō]] goes back to [[m|itc-pro|*kad-e/o-]] and perhaps [[ine-pro|*(ḱe-)ḱh₂d-|t=to fall]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It appears in the 1st century BC.^(OLD 2012) Lucretius has ''stillicidī cāsus lapidem cavat'', “the falling of drips hollows out a stone”,^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) and Cicero, in the ''De oratore'', counts the rights of eaves-drip among questions of property law.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Besides any dripping of a liquid, it could mean a single falling drop, as in Seneca's discussion of rain and hail.^(OLD 2012) Pliny the Elder uses ''stillicidium vēsīcae'' or ''ūrīnae'' for a disease in which urine passes only drop by drop.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ In building and in law it was the drip of rain from the eaves: a law quoted by Varro regulates eaves-drip and runoff,^(OLD 2012) Vitruvius describes how roofs were made to shed it,^(OLD 2012) and the jurists Gaius and Paulus discuss the right to turn it onto a neighbour's roof or yard.^(OLD 2012)^(Etymonline) Vitruvius also uses it for the slope of a roof,^(OLD 2012) and Pliny for the drip from trees.^(OLD 2012) The Ecclesiastical Latin dictionaries give it as a raindrop.^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ English borrowed it in the 1620s as ''stillicide'', also as a term of Roman law.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro quotes a law on eaves-drip and runoff.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of dripping that hollows out stone.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero mentions rights of eaves-drip.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of rain from roofs and of the slope of a roof.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it for a single drop of rain.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names a bladder disease with it.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1620s – Borrowed into English as [[m|en|stillicide]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The falling of a liquid in drops, a [[m|en|drip]]; also, a single falling drop.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(medicine)'' ''stillicidium vēsīcae'' or ''ūrīnae'', a condition in which urine passes only in drops, [[m|en|strangury]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(often plural)'' The drip of rain from the [[m|en|eaves]] of a house;^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) ''(law)'' the right concerning this drip.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # The slope of a roof that throws off the rain.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' A [[m|en|raindrop]].^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[stīllō]]

+ * [[cadō]]

+ * [[en|stillicide]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}