clava Latin · revision 6166

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|attested=Plautus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈkɫaː.wa]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈklaː.va]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''clāva''' ''f'' (genitive clāvae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ De Vaan derives it from the same basis as [[clāvus]] “nail” and [[clāvis]] “key”, from [[itc-pro|*klāwo-|t=closing, barring]], [[ine-pro|*kleh₂u-|t=to close]], perhaps first an adjective “which closes off”, and the OLD also compares ''clāvus''.^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012) Wiktionary and the TLL derive it instead from [[ine-pro|*kelh₂-|t=to beat, break]], as in [[clādēs]] “disaster” and [[percellō]] “to strike down”, perhaps from *cladva.^(Wiktionary)^(TLL)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Isidore of Seville explained it as bound with iron nails, [[m|la|clāvus|alt=clāvī]].^(Isidore)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler's first source is Plautus, whose character orders two clubs to be brought.^(Köbler 2010)^(OLD 2012) Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant a wooden club, stick or cudgel, as in Lucretius and Virgil, the club of Hercules, and a club used in physical exercise, as in Cicero.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Gaffiot 2016) Nepos uses it of the Spartan scytale, the staff round which messages were wound.^(OLD 2012) A fighter with a club was a ''clāvātor''.^(de Vaan 2008)

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+ In Medieval Latin it was a club, and a ceremonial mace carried by a sergeant-at-mace.^(DMLBS)^(Niermeyer 1976) Italian, Spanish and Portuguese ''clava'' are borrowed from it.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 100–24 BC – Nepos uses it of the Spartan scytale.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|club]], [[m|en|cudgel]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # The Spartan [[m|en|scytale]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' A ceremonial [[m|en|mace]].^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[clāvus]]

+ * [[clādēs]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}