fitilla

Latin

Etymology

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”), the root of fingō (“I shape, form”).^[1]^[2] Likely cognate to Umbrian 𐌚𐌉𐌊𐌋𐌀 (fikla) / ficla, derived from *dʰigʰ-tlā-,^[3] with the feminine version of the instrument noun suffix *-tlom. The regular outcome of *dʰiǵʰt- in Latin is fict- (compare fictus), so fītilla may represent a dialectal form of *fictilla.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [fiːˈtɪl.la]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [fiˈtil.la]

Noun

fītilla f (genitive fītillae); first declension

A kind of pottage, porridge or gruel used at sacrifices
Hypernym: puls
- c. 59 CE, Seneca the Younger, De Beneficiis 1.6.3.5:
  Itaque boni etiam farre ac fitilla religiosi sunt; mali rursus non effugiunt impietatem, quamvis aras sanguine multo cruentaverint.
  1935 translation by John W. Basore
  Good men, therefore, are pleasing to the gods with an offering of meal and gruel; the bad, on the other hand, do not escape impiety although they dye the altars with streams of blood.
- 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 18.84.4:
  Pulte autem, non pane, vixisse longo tempore Romanos manifestum, quoniam et pulmentaria hodieque dicuntur, et Ennius antiquissimus vates obsidionis famem exprimens offam eripuisse plorantibus liberis patres commemorat. Et hodie sacra prisca atque natalium pulte fitilla conficiuntur; videturque tam puls ignota Graeciae fuisse quam Italiae polenta.
  1950 translation by H. Rackham
  It is clear however that for a long time the Romans lived on pottage, not on bread, since even to-day foodstuffs are also called 'pulmentaria', and Ennius, the oldest of our bards, describing a famine during a siege, recalls how fathers snatched away a morsel from their crying children. Even nowadays primitive rituals and birthday sacrifices are performed with gruel-pottage; and it appears that pottage was as much unknown to Greece as pearl-barley was to Rome.
- c. 303 CE, Arnobius, Against the Pagans 7.24:
  Quid fitilla, quid frumen, quid africia, quid gratilla, catumeum, conspolium, cubula? ex quibus duo, quae prima, sunt pultium nomina, sed genere et qualitate diversa.
  What is the meaning of fitilla, frumen, africia, gratilla, catumeum, cumspolium, cubula?—of which the first two are names of species of pottage, but differing in kind and quality;

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	fītilla	fītillae
genitive	fītillae	fītillārum
dative	fītillae	fītillīs
accusative	fītillam	fītillās
ablative	fītillā	fītillīs
vocative	fītilla	fītillae

References

^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “fingō, -ere”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 221
^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), “dheigh-”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 244-245
^ Brent Vine (1986), “An Umbrian-Latin Correspondence”, in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 90, →DOI, →ISSN, →JSTOR, pages 111–127