noun · femininefirst declension
festūca
festūca f (genitive festūcae)
Classical[fɛsˈtuː.ka]Ecclesiastical[fesˈtuː.ka]
Meaning
- straw
- stalk, stem
- rod used to touch slaves in ceremonial manumission
- ram, piledriver (often spelt fistūca in this sense)
- Medieval Latinrod as a symbol of legal authority
Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers
minima pars strāminisfestūca -ae (f) — in Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, ch. 5
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | festūca | festūcae |
| genitive | festūcae | festūcārum |
| dative | festūcae | festūcīs |
| accusative | festūcam | festūcās |
| ablative | festūcā | festūcīs |
| vocative | festūca | festūcae |
festūca, ae, f.,
I. a stalk, stem, straw.
I. Lit.
A. In gen.:
qui homo in pratis per fenisecta festucas corradit, Varr. L. L. 5, § 136; Col. 8, 15, 6; Plin. 10, 41, 57, § 116; 18, 27, 67, § 254.—B. A rod with which slaves were touched in the ceremony of manumission:
qui vindicabat festucam tenebat ... et homini imponebat, Gai. Inst. 4, 16; cf.: vindicta, A.: quid? ea ingenuan' an festuca facta e serva libera'st? Plaut. Mil. 4, 1, 15; id. Pers. 5, 175.—II. Transf., a straw-like weed which grows among barley, also called aegilops, Plin. 18, 17, 44, § 155.—
Origins
Perhaps connected to ferula, with a common earlier stem *fes-. De Vaan notes if suffixation is with -ūcus as in several plant names: sambūcus (“elderberry”), albūcus (“asphodel; asphodel bulb”), lactūca (“lettuce”), the stem could be *festo-. According to Etimo, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- (“peak, tip, pointed, bristle”), similar to fastigium (“summit, peak, sharp point”). Gaffiot numbers the sense of ram, piledriver, usually spelt fistūca, a separate word, but it is offered as an alternative spelling in De Vaan. Also compare fistula (“pipe, tube”).
Descendants
- Frenchfétufrom Old French festu
- Englishfescuefrom Old French festu
- Italianfestuca
- Occitanfestuca
- Occitanfestuga
- TranslingualFestuca