sicula
Appearance
See also: sícula
English
[edit]Noun
[edit]sicula (plural siculae)
- (zoology) The hard, triangular apex of a graptolite from which it grows.
Synonyms
[edit]- virgula (obsolete)
Derived terms
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]sicula f
Anagrams
[edit]Latin
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From sīca (“dagger”) + -ula (diminutive suffix).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈsiː.ku.la/, [ˈs̠iːkʊɫ̪ä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈsi.ku.la/, [ˈsiːkulä]
Noun
[edit]sīcula f (genitive sīculae); first declension
- (hapax) diminutive of sīca (“dagger”) (used figuratively of the penis)
- c. 84 BCE – 54 BCE, Catullus, carmina 67.21, (Elegiac couplets):
- 'Primum igitur, virgo quod fertur tradita nobis,
falsumst. non illam vir prior attigerat,
la͞nguĭdĭo͞r tĕnĕrā cu͞i pe͞ndēns sīcŭlă bētā
nu͞mqua͞m sē mĕdĭa͞m su͞stŭlĭt a͞d tŭnĭca͞m- First of all, what’s said, that she arrived to us a virgin, is false. The former man had not touched her; his little dagger, hanging limper than a soft beet, never lifted itself up to the middle of his tunic
- 'Primum igitur, virgo quod fertur tradita nobis,
Usage notes
[edit]Compare the occasional figurative sexual use of other nouns denoting weapons such as machaera.[1] Since the word sīcula only appears in this passage in Classical Latin, it's unclear to what extent its sexual sense was an established metaphor versus a situational euphemism.
Declension
[edit]First-declension noun.
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | sīcula | sīculae |
genitive | sīculae | sīculārum |
dative | sīculae | sīculīs |
accusative | sīculam | sīculās |
ablative | sīculā | sīculīs |
vocative | sīcula | sīculae |
Etymology 2
[edit]Adjective
[edit]sicula
- inflection of siculus:
Adjective
[edit]siculā
References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “sicula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “sicula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- sicula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- sicula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Categories:
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- en:Zoology
- Italian 3-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/ikula
- Rhymes:Italian/ikula/3 syllables
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian adjective forms
- Latin terms suffixed with -ulus
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin nouns
- Latin first declension nouns
- Latin feminine nouns in the first declension
- Latin feminine nouns
- Latin hapax legomena
- Latin diminutive nouns
- Latin terms with quotations
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin adjective forms