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The Latin Neuter Plurals in Romance - Page ON

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between the two forms has varied from language to language. From the Greek<br />

kístē, <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong>ized as cista ‘chest’, we have It., Sp., Ptg. cesta and cesto for k<strong>in</strong>ds<br />

of ‘basket’, the latter be<strong>in</strong>g generally smaller <strong>in</strong> the case of Italian, but not so <strong>in</strong><br />

Spanish and Portuguese. *MATTEA ‘club’ has given first the words for ‘club’,<br />

‘mace’, ‘stamper’, It. mazza, Friul. mazze, Fr. mace, Prov. massa, Cat.<br />

maça/massa, Sp. maza, Ptg. maça, and then mascs. It. mazzo ‘rammer’,<br />

‘bundle’, ‘bunch (of flower, keys etc.)’, Fr. (Lower Ma<strong>in</strong>e) mas, Prov. mas<br />

‘bunch of flowers’, Cat. maç/mas ‘bundle’, ‘bunch’, earlier ‘mallet’, Sp. mazo<br />

‘mallet’, ‘bundle’, ‘bunch of keys’, Ptg. maço ‘rammer’, ‘mallet’, ‘bundle’.<br />

CLAVICULA ‘peg’, which often developed as *CAVICULA, has given the expected<br />

forms <strong>in</strong> all areas except Rumania, and besides these OFr. chevil/Norm. kevil<br />

‘peg’, ‘ankle’, It. cavicchio ‘tun<strong>in</strong>g-peg’ (but caviglio, formed from caviglia <<br />

Prov. cavilha, means a ‘large peg’), Sp. cabillo ‘flower stalk’ from cabilla,<br />

aga<strong>in</strong> taken from Provençal, Ptg. chavelho ‘horn of an ox’ beside chavelha<br />

‘peg’, and cravelho ‘wooden peg’ beside cravelha ‘tun<strong>in</strong>g-peg’ (Spanish has the<br />

one form clavija for both mean<strong>in</strong>gs; Ptg. cavilha from Provençal has no<br />

mascul<strong>in</strong>e counterpart). Italian, Spanish and Portuguese all have barco beside<br />

barca from a late <strong>Lat<strong>in</strong></strong> BARCA ‘bark’, both denot<strong>in</strong>g k<strong>in</strong>ds of boats.<br />

<strong>The</strong> forms correspond<strong>in</strong>g to FOSSU all seem to have developed later<br />

from FOSSA ‘ditch’, later ‘grave’: It. fosso ‘ditch’, fossa ‘grave’, and similarly<br />

Surs., Eng. foss, fossa, Occ. Fos, fosso, OCat. fos, Cat. fossa, Sp. foso, fosa<br />

(from Italian?; cf. huesa <strong>in</strong> §6e above), Ptg. fosso, fossa, Sard. fossu, fossa. In<br />

the same way Italian, Spanish and Portuguese all have toldo, tolda for an<br />

‘awn<strong>in</strong>g’, evidently from Fr. taud, taude, though the latter is not attested until<br />

the 19th century. BULLA ‘bubble’, ‘round object’ has left a number of forms<br />

which are not easy to disentangle. We have the direct forms It. bolla ‘bubble’,<br />

‘blister’, ‘seal’, Surs., Eng. buola ‘swell<strong>in</strong>g’, ‘blister’, ‘bubble’ (for this last the<br />

Surs. form is bulla), Fr. boule ‘ball’, ‘bowl (for bowl<strong>in</strong>g)’, Occ. boulo ‘ditto’,<br />

172

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