coccum Latin · revision 4157

15 Oct 2026, 21:12 by bogdan “New Latin entry (sources: de Vaan, OLD, Lewis & Short, TLL...)” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Horace|origins=grc κόκκος}}
+ 
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈkɔk.kũː]^(Wiktionary)
+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkɔk.kum]^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Forms==
+ '''coccum''' ''n'' (genitive coccī); second declension^(Wiktionary)
+ 
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[bor|grc|κόκκος|tr=kókkos|t=grain, seed, berry]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) A masculine form [[m|la|coccus]] is found in Jerome, Rufinus and other later writers.^(TLL)
+ 
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Horace, in the Satires, has a cloth dyed with red scarlet.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) Köbler dates Horace 65–8 BC.^(Köbler 2010)
+ 
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ It was the kermes insect of the scarlet oak, which the ancients took for a berry or gall, and the scarlet dye made from it.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Pliny describes the scarlet berry, and Georges notes that the word first meant a kernel or berry.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Georges 1913) By metonymy it meant scarlet cloth or a scarlet garment, as in Suetonius' life of Nero and in Silius Italicus.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) ''Coccum Cnidium'' was the berry of spurge flax, used in medicine by Celsus.^(OLD 2012)
+ 
+ It is also found in the Vulgate, and Köbler gives the sense of scarlet thread.^(Köbler 2010) Medieval Latin kept the senses of kermes, scarlet colour and precious scarlet cloth.^(MLW) Through Old French ''coque'' “shell” it lies behind French ''cocon'', the source of English ''cocoon'' in the 1690s.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 65–8 BC – Horace mentions cloth dyed with scarlet.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 14–37 AD – Celsus uses ''coccum Cnidium'' in medicine.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder describes the scarlet berry.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)
+ * 1690s – English ''cocoon'' is recorded, from its French descendant.^(Etymonline)
+ 
+ ==Meanings==
+ ===Noun===
+ # The [[m|en|kermes]] insect, taken for a berry; the [[m|en|scarlet]] dye made from it.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)
+ # Scarlet cloth or a scarlet garment.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)
+ # ''coccum Cnidium'', the berry of spurge flax.^(OLD 2012)
+ 
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[coccinus]]
+ 
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[en|cocoon]]
+ * [[en|coccus]]
+ 
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}