vespillo

See also: Vespillo

English

Etymology

From Latin vespillo.

Noun

vespillo (plural vespilloes)

  1. (Ancient Rome) One who carried out the dead bodies of the poor at night for burial.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “vespillo”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly a derivative of vespa (“wasp”).[1] Festus describes vespa and vespula as synonyms of vespillo in this sense, but denies a connection to the 'wasp' lexeme[1] and instead gives a (likely folk etymology) derivation of these three terms from vesper (“evening”). Thus, a semantic connection with wasps was apparently not obvious to Festus. Regardless, some modern etymologists have favored this derivation; Benveniste 1923-1924:124f argued that wasps were noted for carrying the body of their prey to their nests.[1] The second element may be the diminutive suffix -illus,[1] followed by -ō, -ōnis m (suffix forming appellations) making the overall structure vespa +‎ -illus +‎ -ō.

De Vaan cites Watkins 1969 for a proposal that the word comes instead from a PIE root for 'clothing' or 'shroud'[2] and is cognate to Hittite [script needed] (wašpaš, “clothes”).[3]

Pronunciation

Noun

vespillō m (genitive vespillōnis); third declension

  1. An undertaker who buries paupers.
    • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 368, line 17:
      Vespae et vespillones dicuntur, qui funerandis corporibus officium gerunt, non a minutis illis volucribus, sed quia vespertino tempore eos efferunt, qui funebri pompa duci propter inopiam nequeunt. Hi etiam vespulae vocantur.
      They are called vespae and vespillones, who perform the function of burying corpses, not from those little flying creatures, but because they carry out in the evening [vespertino tempore] those who because of poverty cannot be carried in a funeral procession. They are also called vespulae.
  2. A ghoul, graverobber.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative vespillō vespillōnēs
Genitive vespillōnis vespillōnum
Dative vespillōnī vespillōnibus
Accusative vespillōnem vespillōnēs
Ablative vespillōne vespillōnibus
Vocative vespillō vespillōnēs

References
  1. Jerry Russell Craddock, "The Romance descendants of Latin cancer and vespa" in Romance Philology, Vol. 60 (2006), Homage Issue: Special Combined issue of Romance Philology In Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of Romance Philology : A homage volume dedicated to Jerry R. Craddock, containing a selection of his obra dispersa on Romance historical linguistics, pp. 1–42. pages 20-23 http://www.jstor.org/stable/44741756
  2. De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ve/ispillō”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 670
  3. Calvert Watkins (1969) “A Latin-Hittite Etymology”, in Language, volume 45, number 2, Part 1, pages 235-242

Further reading
  • “vespillo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • vespillo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • “vespillo”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
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