cenula Latin · revision 36894

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

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [ˈkeː.nʊ.ɫa]^(Wiktionary)

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

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''cēnula''' ''f'' (genitive cēnulae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+ It is also spelled ''caenula'' and ''coenula''.^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a diminutive, [[af|la|cēna|-ula|t1=dinner]].^(OLD 2012)^(TLL)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan traces [[m|la|cēna]] to [[itc-pro|*kert(e)snā-|t=meal]] and [[ine-pro|*kert-s-nh2-|t=portion]], a cut part that came to mean a meal.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Varro has it in his ''Menippean Satires'', of varying a little [[m|en|dinner]] with conversation,^(TLL)^(Georges 1913) and Köbler dates it from Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who in the ''Tusculans'' quotes the words “from yesterday's little dinner you did not understand that I have no need of money”.^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Cicero also speaks of giving little dinners (''cēnulās facere'').^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010) Petronius, Martial, Juvenal and Suetonius use it of modest meals,^(TLL) and Suetonius' life of Claudius has an invitation to a sudden little dinner.^(Georges 1913)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Gellius describes a dinner at which the guests looked for clever questions rather than delicacies.^(TLL)

+

+ Christian writers kept it: Tertullian complains that “our little suppers” are mocked as extravagant, Jerome asks a reader to be content with “our little meal”, and Sulpicius Severus has the bread left over from a supper.^(TLL) Glossaries render it with a Greek diminutive for a meal.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in the ''Menippean Satires''.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the ''Tusculans'' and the letters.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of an invitation by Claudius.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of Christian suppers.^(TLL)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A little [[m|en|dinner]], a light [[m|en|supper]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[cēna]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}