sicilio

From sicilis (“sickle”) +‎ -iō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /siˈki.li.oː/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /siˈt͡ʃi.li.o/,

siciliō (present infinitive sicilīre); fourth conjugation, no perfect or supine stems

1. to mow (a meadow) with a sickle
   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Agricultural Topics 1.49.2:

     Dicam, inquit, de fructibus maturis capiendis. Primum de pratis summissis herba, cum crescere desiit et aestu arescit, subsecari falcibus debet et, quaad perarescat, furcillis versari; cum perarvit, de his manipulos fieri ac vehi ad villam; tum de pratis stipulam rastellis eradi atque addere faenisiciae cumulum. Quo facto sicilienda prata, id est falcibus consectanda quae faenisices praeterierunt ac quasi herba tuberosum reliquerunt campum. A qua sectione arbitror dictum sicilire pratum.

     • 1934 translation by W. D. Hooper, Harrison Boyd Ash.

       he continued: “I shall discuss next the subject of harvesting the ripe crops. First the grass on the hay-meadows should be cut close with the sickle when it ceases to grow and begins to dry from the heat, and turned with the fork while it is drying out; when it is quite dry it should be made into bundles and hauled to the barn. Then the loose hay from the meadows should be raked up and added to the hay-pile. After doing this you should ‘sickle’ the meadows—that is, cut with the sickle what the mowers have passed over, leaving the field humped, as it were, with tufts of grass. I suppose the verb sicilire, used with meadow as object, is derived from this cutting (sectio).

   • 4 CE – c. 70 CE, Columella, De Re Rustica 2.21.3:

     Feriis autem ritus maiorum etiam illa permittit: far pinsere, faces incidere, candelas sebare, vineam conductam colere; piscinas, lacus, fossas veteres tergere et purgare, prata sicilire, stercora aequare, faenum in tabulata conponere, fructus oliveti conductos cogere, mala, pira, ficos pandere, caseum facere, arbores serendi causa collo vel mulo clitellario adferre

     • 1941 translation by Harrison Boyd Ash

       Furthermore, the religious observances of our forefathers permit these tasks also on holidays: the braying of spelt; the cutting of torches; the dipping of candles; the tilling of a leased vineyard; the clearing out and cleaning of fish-ponds, cisterns, and old ditches; the sickling of meadows; the spreading of manure; the storing of hay in the loft; the gathering of the fruits of a leased olive-grove; the spreading of apples, pears, and figs to dry; the making of cheese; the carrying of trees for planting, either on our own shoulders or with a pack mule.

   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 18.259:

     Senescunt prata restituique debent faba in iis sata vel rapis vel milio, mox insequente anno frumento, rursusque in⟨a⟩rata tertio relinqui, praeterea quotiens secta sint sicilir⟨i⟩, hoc est quae fenise⟨c⟩es praeterierunt secari. Est enim in primis inutile enasci herbas sementaturas.

     • 1950 translation by H. Rackham

       Meadows go off with age, and need to be revived by sowing in them a crop of beans or turnip or millet, and afterwards in the following year corn, and in the third year they should again be left fallow; and moreover every time they are cut they should be gone over with the sickle, for the purpose of cutting all the growth that the mowers have passed over; for it is very detrimental indeed for any weeds to spring up that will scatter seeds.

• sicilīmentum

• *sicilare

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