suculaとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From sūs (“pig, hog, sow”) +‎ -cula (diminutive suffix), at least when used literally. The more frequent "winch", "windlass" sense is most often explained as a metaphorical extension of this, by the resemblance of the device and the attached apparatus to a sow with her litter; the use of porculus (“little piglet”) figuratively to refer to a hook or clutching device used with a sucula indicates that this interpretation was certainly salient, whether original or secondary.

Kortlandt 2007, citing Dybo 1961, explains the form's short vowel as from *sŭko- with an originally stressed velar suffix that caused pretonic shortening (which per Dybo is a shared feature of Italic and Celtic). Rasmussen 1999 instead attributes the short vowel to pre-geminate shortening (*sukkla- < *sukkelā-), and argues that Dybo was incorrect to give this as an example of pretonic shortening. For the idea that the gemination in succula is original, compare Proto-Celtic *sukkos.

Alternative proposals for the etymology of the "windlass" sense:

• Per Walde and Hofmann 1954, the "windlass" sense is from a Proto-Indo-European root related to Lithuanian sùkti (“to weave, spin, rotate”) and Russian скать (skatʹ, “twist, turn”).
• Per Lewis and Short 1879, the "windlass" sense is possibly related to Greek σεύω (seúō, “drive”), itself of uncertain origin.

発音

• (Classical Latin) IPA: [ˈsʊ.kʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: [ˈsuː.ku.la]

The vowel in the first syllable is short per Gaffiot, Lewis and Short, Walde and Hofmann, and Kortlandt. Lindsay (1892) argues that it scans short where it occurs in Plautus' Rudens (quoted below). De Vaan marks the vowel as long, but notes that per Schrijver, derivatives of sūs may be built on either sū- from the nominative or su- from the oblique forms.

名詞

sucula f (genitive suculae); first declension

1. (rare) Diminutive of sūs (“pig”)
   • c. 211 BCE, Plautus, Rudens 4.4.1170, (trochaic septenarius):

     Palaestra post sicilicula argenteola et duae conexae maniculae et / sucula. Gripus quin tu i dierecta, cum sucula et cum porculis

     Palaestra then a little silver sickle and two joined little hands and a winch [or "and a little sow"]. Gripus Go be hanged with your little sow and little piglets.

   • c. 998 CE, Ælfric of Eynsham, Grammar, (as cited in DMLBS):

     suilla vel sucula, gilte

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. winch, windlass, capstan (or similar device)

使用する際の注意点

• The literal sense "small female pig" is rare in Classical Latin: Lewis and Short indicate it only occurs in the cited passage from Plautus, where it may be a play on words with the "winch", "windlass" sense. The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources also provides examples in postclassical glosses.

語形変化

First-declension noun.

派生した語

• ⇒ Late Latin: suculus
  • Italian: succhio, secchio (Tuscan), ⇒ succhiello
• → English: succula

参考

• Suculae

参照

Further reading

• “sucula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sucula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.