The corpus record — Latin

fistula

pipe, tube

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Copa, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 42.19/10k
Dirae, Appendix Vergiliana 1 · 15.41/10k
Eclogues 4 · 8.81/10k
De Medicina 54 · 5.27/10k
Parentalia 1 · 3.85/10k
Carminum minorum corpusculum 3 · 3.55/10k
De agri cultura 5 · 3.2/10k
Maximus et Balbinus 1 · 3.18/10k
Carmina 4 · 3.01/10k
De Architectura 17 · 2.95/10k
Atticus 1 · 2.83/10k
Pro C. Rabirio Perduellionis Reo Ad Quirites 1 · 2.82/10k

Densest 12 of 41 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. fistula — de Vaan

fistula 'pipe, tube' [f a] (Cato+) Derivatives: fistulosus 'full of holes; tubular' (Cato+). No certain etymology. The best comparison seems to be with festuca 'stalk, straw' and maybe ferula "giant fennel' (if from *fesula): the forms of a 'pipe' and a 'stalk' are similar. The vacillation between fest- and fist- occurs within festuca itself, and might be dialectal, or allophonic within Latin. BibL: WH I: 506f, EM … — [de Vaan, s.v. fistula, p. 237]

2. fistŭla — Lewis & Short

fistŭla, ae, f.findo, fis-sum.

I In gen., a pipe, tube, e. g. a water-pipe (usually of lead; syn.: tubus, canalis, sypho), Cic. Rab. Perd. 11, 31; Front. Aquaed. 25 sq.; Plin. 2, 103, 106, § 224; 31, 6, 31, § 58; Ov. M. 4, 122; Inscr. Orell. 3322; 3324; 3892; the wind-pipe and gullet, Plin. 11, 37, 66, § 175; Gell. 17, 11, 4; the tubular vessels in the lungs, Plin. 11, 37, 72, § 188; in the teeth, id. 11, 37, 62, § 163; a hole in a sponge, id. 31, 11, 47, § 123 al.; the blow-hole of the whale, id. 9, 7, 6, § 19.—

II In partic.

A A hollow reed-stalk, a reed, cane, Plin. 12, 22, 48, § 106; 19, 5, 23, § 66.—

2 Transf.

a A reed-pipe, shepherd's pipe, pipes of Pan (made of several reeds gradually decreasing in length and calibre), the Greek su/rigc, invented by Pan (syn.: tibia, sura): fistula, cui semper decrescit arundinis ordo: Nam calamus cerā jungitur usque minor, Tib. 2, 5, 31; cf. Verg. E. 2, 32 sq.; Ov. M. 1, 688 sq.; 2, 682; 13, 784; Plin. 7, 56, 57, § 204; Hor. C. 4, 1, 24; 4, 12, 10 et al.: eburneola, a pitch-pipe, for giving the tone in which an orator should speak, Cic. de Or. 3, 60, 225 sq.; cf. Quint. 1, 10, 27.— In comic transf.: itaque et ludis et gladiatoribus mirandas e)pishmasi/as sine ulla pastoricia fistula auferebamus, i. e. without being hissed off, Cic. Att. 1, 16, 11.—

b A writing-reed, Pers. 3, 14.—

B A sort of ulcer, a fistula, Cels. 2, 8 med.; 5, 12; 7, 4; Plin. 20, 9, 33, § 55; 24, 11, 51, § 88; Cato, R. R. 157, 14; Nep. Att. 21, 3.—

C Fistula sutoria, a shoemaker's punch, Plin. 17, 14, 23, § 100.—

D A catheter: aeneae fistulae fiunt, Cels. 7, 26, 1 init.—

E Fistula farraria, a sort of hand-mill for grinding corn, Cato, R. R. 10, 3; also called fistula serrata, Plin. 18, 10, 23, § 97.

3. fistula — Walde–Hofmann

fistula, -ae f. „Röhre (bes. Wasserleitungsrohr), Rohr als Pflanze, Rohrstengel“ ; met. , Rohrpfeife; Katheter; geriefte Röhre der Handmühle; Geschwür, Fistel u. dgl.* (seit Cato, rom. [z, ALL. 2, 228), ebenso -ätus „röhrenförmig“ seit Suet, -äre „pfeifen“ Gl. Demin. fistella „Röhrchen“ seit Pela on.; vgl. noch -Ator „Flötenbläser“ seit Cic., -ösus „löcherig, mit Röhre versehen“ seit Cato, -ärilu)s, -atim, -6sc0 … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. fistula, p. 538]

In the wild

fistulae Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 12.22.p2
fistulae Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 29.4.p5
fistula Horace, Carmina 4.1
fistula Sidonius Apollinaris, Carmina 2.253
fistula Vitruvius, De Architectura 8.6.4
fistulas Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 11_13.86.7

6 of 209 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. fistula (scan p. 237; entry #583).
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. fistula (scan p. 262; entry #4089).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. fistula (scan pp. 538-540; entry #1127). Root candidates: *geizd-, *bheis-, *dhläg-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.