asellus Latin · revision 7299

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=Plautus|origins=la asinus}}

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''asellus''' ''m'' (genitive asellī); second declension^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a diminutive of [[asinus]] “ass” with the suffix ⟨-ellus⟩.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler's first source is Plautus, whom he dates c. 250–184 BC.^(Köbler 2010) The OLD's earliest citation is from Varro, of a donkey.^(OLD 2012)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It meant a little ass, a donkey, a pack ass, as Varro's ''asellus dossuārius'', and Cicero's ''asellus onustus aurō'' “an ass laden with gold”.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) In Pliny the ''Asellī'' were two stars in Cancer.^(OLD 2012) In Varro it was also a fish of the cod family, probably the hake.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) ''Asellus'' was also a Roman cognomen, and Cicero reports a joke of Scipio Aemilianus on it.^(TLL)^(Gaffiot 2016)

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+ In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant a donkey, a young ass.^(Stelten 1995) It survives in Italian ''asello'', and Köbler derives Germanic *asilu- from it.^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus has the word.^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of a pack ass and of a fish.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero quotes the ass laden with gold.^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny uses it of two stars.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

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+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A little ass, [[m|en|donkey]].^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''Asellī'', two stars in Cancer.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A fish, probably the [[m|en|hake]].^(OLD 2012)

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+ ==Word family==

+ * [[asella]]

+ * [[asellio]]

+ * [[asellulus]]

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[asinus]]

+ * [[en|ass]]

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}