pullus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus.

pullus (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A chick; a young bird in the downy stage.

• “pullus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus. Doublet of pul.

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pullus m (plural pulli, no diminutive)

1. (ornithology) a pullus; the young chick of a bird

   Synonym: kuiken

   Hyponyms: nesteling, takkeling

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpʊl.lʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpul.lus]

Disputed; two etymologies are plausible:

• From Proto-Italic *polnos, from Proto-Indo-European *polH-on- (“offspring, (animal) young”); compare Ancient Greek πῶλος (pôlos, “foal; young girl”), Proto-Germanic *fulô (“foal”), Albanian pjellë (“child”) and pelë (“mare”), Old Armenian ուլ (ul, “kid, fawn”). The verbal root is likely found in Albanian pjell (“to beget”), which implies a connection to pellō (“to drive, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- with a semantic shift of “to push (out)” > “to beget”,^[1] if not a distinct root *pelH- (“to give birth”).^[2]
• From Proto-Indo-European *put-, also found in Latin putus (“boy”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *putrás (“boy”) and perhaps Sanskrit पोत (pota, “young animal”) (which would indicate *pewt-, though more likely borrowed from Dravidian) and Lithuanian putýtis (“young bird, young animal”). De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *putslos, which he considers a variant of *putlos (“boy”). The presence of an earlier apical consonant in the stem in Latin is evidenced by the -s- in the diminutive adjective pusillus.^[3] Some authors connect these to the root *peh₂w- (“small”) (compare Latin paulus, paullus (“small”) and paucus (“little, few”), Old English fēaw (“little, few”)), but the morphology is unclear and the complete disappearance of the laryngeal is hard to explain.

Alternatively onomatopoeic, like Swedish pulla.

pullus m (genitive pullī); second declension

2. any young animal, young

   Synonym: fētus

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Agricultural Topics III.XV.1–2:

     Facere iis [gliribus] cavos oportet laxiores, ubi pullos parere possint; aquam esse tenuem, quod ea non utuntur multum et aridum locum quaerunt.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 35 BCE, Horace, Satires (book 2) III.307–317:

     […] absentis ranae pullis vituli pede pressis
     unus ubi effugit, matri denarrat, ut ingens
     belua cognatos eliserit: illa rogare,
     quantane?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (especially):
   1. a chick, chicken or any young fowl

      Coordinate terms: gallus, gallīna

      • c. 35 BCE, Horace, Satires (book 1) III.90–95:

        Conminxit lectum potus mensave catillum
        Evandri manibus tritum deiecit: ob hanc rem,
        aut positum ante mea quia pullum in parte catini
        sustulit esuriens, minus hoc iucundus amicus
        sit mihi? quid faciam, si furtum fecerit aut si
        prodiderit conmissa fide sponsumve negarit?

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   2. a foal

      Coordinate term: equus

      • Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Zaccharias [Zechariah] 9:9, page 1424, column 1:

        Exsulta satis, filia Sion; iubila, filia Ierusalem: ecce rex tuus veniet tibi, iustus et salvator: ipse pauper, et ascendens super asinam et super pullum filium asinae.

        Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; make jubilation, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

4. (transferred senses):
   1. (horticulture) a shoot, a young plant

      Synonyms: pampinus, germen

      • 234 BCE – 149 BCE, Cato the Elder, De Agri Cultura 51:

        Propagatio pomorum, aliarum arborum. Ab arbore abs terra pulli qui nascentur, eos in terram deprimito extollitoque primorem partem, uti radicem capiat; […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   3. (endearing) darling
      • c. 180 BCE, Plautus, Casina I.1.44–1.52:

        Concludere in fenestram firmiter,
        Vnde auscultare possis, quom ego illam ausculer.
        Quom mihi illa dicet: mi animule, mi Olympio,
        Mea vita, mea mellilla, mea festivitas:
        Sine tuos ocellos deosculer, voluptas mea,
        Sine, amabo, ted amari, meus festus dies,
        Meus pullus passer, mea columba, mi lepus: […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 121 CE, Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars Vita Gai 13:

        Itaque ut a Miseno movit quamvis lugentis habitu et funus Tiberi prosequens, tamen inter altaria et victimas ardentisque taedas densissimo et laetissimo obviorum agmine incessit, super fausta nomina "sidus" et "pullum" et "pupum" et "alumnum" appellantium; […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun.

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *polHwós (maybe a weak form of *pélHus) or *polHnós, from the root *pelH- (“pale, gray”), thereby related to palleō, though the formal details are debated.^[4]

pullus (feminine pulla, neuter pullum); first/second-declension adjective

2. dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky
   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Agricultural Topics III.XII.5:

     Quorum [leporum] ergo tria genera fere sunt: unum Italicum hoc nostrum pedibus primis humilibus, posterioribus altis, superiore parte pulla, ventre albo, auribus longis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Virgil, Georgics III.384–390:

     Si tibi lanitium curae, primum aspera silva
     lappaeque tribolique absint; fuge pabula laeta;
     continuoque greges villis lege mollibus albos.
     Illum autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse,
     nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato,
     reice, ne maculis infuscet vellera pullis
     nascentum, plenoque alium circumspice campo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.610–612:

     […] : at medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro,
     plumeus, atricolor, pullo velamine tectus,
     quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 30 BCE, Horace, Epodes XVI.41–48:

     Nos manet Oceanus circum vagus: arva beata
     petamus, arva divites et insulas,
     reddit ubi cererem tellus inarata quotannis
     et inputata floret usque vinea,
     germinat et numquam fallentis termes olivae
     suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem,
     mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis
     levis crepante lympha desilit pede.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (transferred senses):
   1. (of clothing) associated with the common people and by extension, with humbleness (of rank or intent), stinginess or mourning

      toga/vestis/tunica pulla: any rough and cheap dark-gray garb usually worn by the poor, not suited for special or meaningful events

      (Can we add an example for this sense? (mourning))

      • 70 BCE, Cicero, In Verrem II.IV.54:

        Tum illa, ex patellis et turibulis quae evellerat, ita scite in aureis poculis inligabat, ita apte in scaphiis aureis includebat, ut ea ad illam rem nata esse diceres; ipse tamen praetor, qui sua vigilantia pacem in Sicilia dicit fuisse, in hac officina maiorem partem diei cum tunica pulla sedere solebat et pallio.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 56 BCE, Cicero, In Vatinium XII–XIII:

        Atque etiam illud scire ex te cupio, quo consilio aut qua mente feceris ut in epulo Q. Arri, familiaris mei, cum toga pulla accumberes? quem umquam videris, quem audieris? quo exemplo, quo more feceris? […] Sed omitto epulum populi Romani, festum diem argento, veste, omni apparatu ornatuque visendo: quis umquam in luctu domestico, quis in funere familiari cenavit cum toga pulla? cui de balineis exeunti praeter te toga pulla umquam data est? Cum tot hominum milia accumberent, cum ipse epuli dominus, Q. Arrius, albatus esset, tu in templum Castoris te cum C. Fibulo atrato ceterisque tuis furiis funestum intulisti. Quis tum non ingemuit, quis non doluit rei publicae casum?

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 4th century, Jerome, Letters 3.Ad Nepotianum Phesbyterum.9:

        Vestes pullas aeque devita, ut candidas. Ornatus ut sordes pari modo fugiendae sunt, quia alterum delicias, alterum gloriam redolet.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • c. 416/417 CE, Paulus Orosius, Historiae adversum paganos Caput XVIII. 6.434–435:

        Lepidus tandem intelligens, quo vanitas sua tenderet, deposito paludamento, assumptaque veste pulla, supplex Cæsari factus vitam et bona impetravit, perpetuo quidem emendatus exsilio.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   2. (poetic, of the threads of the Fates) bringing sorrow, sorrowful, mournful
      • 9 CE, Ovid, The Ibis 241–244:

        […] : at Clotho iussit promissa valere,
        nevit et infesta stamina pulla manu,
        et, ne longa suo praesagia diceret ore,
        ‘fata canet vates qui tua,’ dixit, ‘erit.’

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martial, Epigrammata VI.LVIII:

        Si mihi lanificae ducunt non pulla sorores
        Stamina nec surdos vox habet ista deos,
        Sospite me sospes Latias reveheris ad urbes
        Et referes pili praemia clarus eques.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

To be dressed in unelegant, torn or tattered clothings before a public was used by Romans to express humility, inspire pity and earn people's good will (see Suetonius, Vitellius XV; Orosius, Historiae VI.XVIII).

First/second-declension adjective.

• “pullus 1”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 2”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 3”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 1”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pullus 2”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pullus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• "pullus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pullus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers