sicula

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See also: sícula

English

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Noun

sicula (plural siculae)

  1. (zoology) The hard, triangular apex of a graptolite from which it grows.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Anagrams

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsi.ku.la/
  • Rhymes: -ikula
  • Hyphenation: sì‧cu‧la

Adjective

sicula f

  1. feminine singular of siculo

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology 1

From sīca (“dagger”) +‎ -ula (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

Noun

sīcula f (genitive sīculae); first declension

  1. (hapax legomenon) 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
Usage notes

Compare the occasional figurative sexual use of other nouns denoting weapons such as machaera. 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

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

Adjective

sicula

  1. inflection of siculus:
    1. nominative/vocative feminine singular
    2. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter plural

Adjective

siculā

  1. ablative feminine singular of siculus

References

  1. ^ Adams, J.N. (1990) The Latin Sexual Vocabulary, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 21

Further reading

  • “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.
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