fītilla

Meaning

1. A kind of pottage, porridge or gruel used at sacrifices
   Itaque boni etiam farre ac fitilla religiosi sunt; mali rursus non effugiunt impietatem, quamvis aras sanguine multo cruentaverint.1935 translation by John W. Basore Good men, therefore, are pleasing to the gods with an offering of meal and gruel; the bad, on the other hand, do not escape impiety although they dye the altars with streams of blood.c. 59 CE, Seneca Minor, De Beneficiis 1.6.3.5
   Pulte autem, non pane, vixisse longo tempore Romanos manifestum, quoniam et pulmentaria hodieque dicuntur, et Ennius antiquissimus vates obsidionis famem exprimens offam eripuisse plorantibus liberis patres commemorat. Et hodie sacra prisca atque natalium pulte fitilla conficiuntur; videturque tam puls ignota Graeciae fuisse quam Italiae polenta.1950 translation by H. Rackham It is clear however that for a long time the Romans lived on pottage, not on bread, since even to-day foodstuffs are also called 'pulmentaria', and Ennius, the oldest of our bards, describing a famine during a siege, recalls how fathers snatched away a morsel from their crying children. Even nowadays primitive rituals and birthday sacrifices are performed with gruel-pottage; and it appears that pottage was as much unknown to Greece as pearl-barley was to Rome.77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 18.84.4

Declension

Origins

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- (“to mold”), the root of fingō (“to shape, form”). Likely cognate to Umbrian 𐌚𐌉𐌊𐌋𐌀 (fikla) / ficla, derived from *dʰigʰ-tlā-, with the feminine version of the instrument noun suffix *-tlom. The regular outcome of *dʰiǵʰt- in Latin is fict- (compare fictus), so fītilla may represent a dialectal form of *fictilla.