The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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spread to the Iberian Peninsula. The diminutive VASCELLA is also found as a
plural form vascella in Old Italian, and otherwise appears widely as a
collective feminine singular for ‘dishes’ in Surs. vischala (old vaschalla) with
unitary vischi, Eng. vaschella with unitary vaschè, Fr. vaisselle, Prov. vaissella,
Cat. vaixella, Sp. vajilla (evidently not of purely Castilian origin), Ptg. baixela
(Sard. vašella is from Catalan). OSTIA ‘doors’, which was also a feminine
singular as a place name, appears as a plural only in OIt. uscia, and otherwise
has become a singular, so Rum. uşă/uşe, Surs. collective escha ‘doors’ with
unitary esch, OFr. huisse, Prov. ussa. The collective sense of FERRA ‘irons’ can
be seen in Rum. fiare ‘irons’, ‘chains’ (beside the regular plural fiere), similar
to the OIt. ferra (and Lombard Latin ferroras), whereas OFr. ferre (hapax)
‘ironwork’, Prov. ferra ‘ditto’ are singulars (in Catalan there is only one
doubtful example of fera recorded, seemingly for masc. ferre, but the phrase en
ferres could equally well come from the feminine as from the masculine); the
Am. Sp. hierra and Ptg. ferra ‘branding’ are evidently deverbals, but Ptg. ferra
‘shovel’ would seem to have developed out of the idea of ‘fire-irons’. Again,
SIGNA ‘signs’ (feminine in late Latin) has given Rum. semne and OIt. (Sic.)
singna (Monaci, No. 41) as plurals, and, as singulars, OFr. seingne (hapax),
Prov. senha, OCat. senya, Sp. seña, Ptg. senha, Sard. sinna. The cognate
INSIGNIA ‘insignia’ appears as a plural in OIt. insegna (in a manuscript variant
of singna), but otherwise only as a singular in It. insegna ‘badge’, ‘signboard’,
‘standard’, ‘ensign’, and similar Fr. enseigne, Prov. ensenha, Cat. ensenya, Sp.
enseña (Portuguese only has the learned insignia); the Surs. enzenna/ansenna,
Eng. insaina/insegna (Italianized) ‘sign’ also seem to be crossed with this form.
FILA ‘threads’ is continued as a plural in Rum. fire and the It. collective fila as
opposed to individual fili and also in Calab. filure; the Sp. sing. hila ‘lint (for a
wound)’ would also seem to be a continuation of this, though in other senses it
is more likely to be a deverbal of hilar, following the pattern of Fr. file ‘file’,
‘row’, ‘line’, which has spread to other areas as well. CASTELLA ‘castles’