The corpus record — Latin

scintilla

spark of fire

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

Where it lives

Satyricon 10 · 3.29/10k
Hamartigenia 2 · 3.13/10k
Cathemerina 1 · 1.36/10k
Apotheosis 1 · 1.35/10k
Trinummus 1 · 1.02/10k
Lucullus 1 · 0.56/10k
De Republica 1 · 0.46/10k
Epistulae. Selections. 2 · 0.46/10k
De consolatione philosophiae 1 · 0.41/10k
De Rerum Natura 2 · 0.41/10k
Fasti 1 · 0.32/10k
Aeneid 2 · 0.32/10k

Densest 12 of 22 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. scintilla — de Vaan

scintilla 'spark of fire' [f a] (PL+) Derivatives: scintillare 'to send out sparks, glitter' (PL+). IEW connects scintilla with the root *sfd- 'to shine', now *skeff(i)- in LIV. Whereas the suffix can be a diminutive in *-lelo- or *-n-lo-, the stem form *scint- cannot be explained: does it somehow derivefromscindd? BibL: WHII: 494f, EM 602, IEW 917f. scio, scire 'to know' [v. IV; pf. sci(v)T, ppp. satian] (Naev.+) … — [de Vaan, s.v. scintilla, p. 559]

2. scintilla — Lewis & Short

scintilla, ae, f.dim.kindr. with spinqh/r,

I a spark (class.).

I Lit.; sing.: videmus Accedere ex unā scintillā incendia passim, Lucr. 5, 609; 4, 606; Verg. A. 1, 174; Ov. M. 7, 80; Liv. 38, 7 al.: parva saepe scintilla contempta excitavit incendium, Curt. 6, 3, 11.—Plur., Lucr. 2, 675; 6, 163; Verg. A. 12, 102; Quint. 8, 5, 29 al.—

B Transf., a bright, sparkling point: nullis ut in auro lucentibus scintillis, Plin. 33, 6, 31, § 95.—

II Trop., a spark, glimmer, faint trace: scintilla ingenii, Cic. Rep. 2, 21, 31: belli, id. Fam. 10, 14, 2: isti tantis offusis tenebris ne scintillam quidem ullam nobis ad dispiciendum reliquerunt, id. Ac. 2, 19, 61: ne scintillam quidem relinques, genus qui congliscat tuom, Plaut. Trin. 3, 2, 52.

3. scintilla — Walde–Hofmann

scintilla, -ae f. „Funke“ (seit Plaut., rom., ebenso scintilló, -àre „funkle“ seit Plt.; vgl. scintillula „Fünkchen“ seit Tert., scintillatio „Funkeln“ seit Plin., scintillösus ,funkelnd* Cassiod. Herkunft unsicher. Nach Niedermann IF. 26, 58 f., 29, 36 (vgl. Cl. 6, 344] zu gr. anıvönp „Funke“, indem in einem aus dem voridg. Mittelmeerländischen entlehnten *sfint(h)- das erste £ in verschiedener Weise gegen das … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. scintilla, p. 1400]

In the wild

scintillam Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 2.18.15
scintillis Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16.6.p5
scintillam Bede, Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum 2.11.p4
scintilla Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 10.14.2
scintillae Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 18.35.p8
scintillamve Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 18.35.p8

6 of 48 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. scintilla (scan p. 559; entry #1564). Root candidates: *scint-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. scintilla (scan p. 626; entry #10328).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. scintilla (scan pp. 1400-1401; entry #2480). Root candidates: *skent-, *skint-, *sgäit-.

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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.