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The corpus record — Latin

medulla

medulla

marrow, pith, interior

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

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 63 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. medulla — de Vaan

medulla 'marrow, pith, interior'^[f. a] (P1.+) *; Derivatives: medullitus [adv.] 'inwardly, from the marrow' (Pl,+). Pit *(s)meru-lo-l ' ' PIE *smer-u- 'marrow'. IE cognates: Olr. smiur (u), W. mery Bret, mel 'marrow' < PCI. *smeru-, OIc. smjgr [n.], OE smeoroy OHG smero 'fat' < *smerua~. Semantically, the connection with *smer-u- is the most attractive one, but it requires a change r > d> which is the opposite of … — [de Vaan, s.v. medulla, p. 383]

2. mĕdulla — Lewis & Short

mĕdulla, ae, f.medius,

I the marrow of bones; the pith of plants (class.).
I Lit., Hor. Epod. 5, 37: cumque albis ossa medullis, Ov. M. 14, 208: ossa regum vacuis exsucta medullis, Juv. 8, 90: per media foramina a cerebro medullā descendente, Plin. 11, 37, 67, § 178.—
B Transf., the pith, inside, kernel: vitis medullā, Col. 3, 18, 5; Plin. 16, 25, 42, § 103: frumenta, quae salsā aquā sparsa moluntur, candidiorem medullam reddunt, i. e. meal, flour, Plin. 18, 9, 20, § 87: medulla ventris, the inside, Plaut. Stich. 2, 2, 17.—
II Trop., the marrow, kernel, innermost part, best part, quintessence: at ego pereo, cui medullam lassitudo perbibit, Plaut. Stich. 2, 2, 18: cum hic fervor tamquam in venis medullisque insederit, Cic. Tusc. 4, 10, 24; cf.: in medullis populi Romani ac visceribus haerebant, id. Phil. 1, 15, 36: haec mihi semper erunt imis infixa medullis, Ov. Tr. 1, 5, 9: qui mihi haeres in medullis, who are at the bottom of my heart, Cic. Fam. 15, 16, 2: qui mihi sunt inclusa medullis, id. Att. 15, 4, 3: nondum implevere medullas maturae mala nequitiae, Juv. 14, 215: communes loci, qui in mediis litium medullis versantur, Quint. 2, 1, 11: verborum, inner meaning, Gell. 18, 4, 2: divisio compagum ac medullarum, the innermost parts, Vulg. Heb. 4, 12.—Poet.: suadae, the marrow or quintessence of eloquence, said of Cethegus, Enn. ap. Cic. Brut. 15, 58 (Ann. v. 309 Vahl.); cf. Quint. 2, 15, 4.

3. medulla — Walde–Hofmann

medulla, -ae f. (meist Plur., Vendryes MSL. 15, 363 ,das Mark in Knochen und Pflanzen“; übtr, „das Innerste, Vortrefflichste“ (seit Enn., rom. [-d- und -r-, vgl. unten]; medullitus „im Mark, im Innersten* seit Enn. [vgl. funditus), medullula f. „das zarte Mark“ Catull, medullösus, -a, -um „voll Mark* Cels, medulläris, -e „ım Innersten befindlich* seit Apul, medullätus „mit Mark erfüllt“ seit Hier. (Rückbldg. … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. medulla, p. 964]

In the wild

6 of 270 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. medulla (scan pp. 383-384; entry #1019). Root candidates: *smeru-, *h3meigh-.
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. medulla (scan pp. 417-418; entry #6691).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. medulla (scan pp. 964-965; entry #1735). Root candidates: *smerwa-, *smor-, *follo-.

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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.