pistillum

Meaning

A pestle.

Concepts

pestle

Translations

يدُ الهاوُن

mà de morter

Mörserkeule

ɣuðo’xeri

pilon

pestello

stamper

almofariz

carimbo

mão de pilão

mano de mortero

Pronounced as (IPA)

[pɪsˈtɪl.lũː]

Etymology

A diminutive formation from the root of pīnsō and pistō. Perhaps from *pistlelo-, diminutive of *pistlo- (the ancestor of pīlum (“pounder, pestle”)), from *pis- and the instrument noun suffix *tlo-. Alternatively from *pistrelo-, with the -tr- variant of the instrument noun suffix. On the one hand, the base *pistrum is not attested, and the phonetically regular outcome of *pistrelo- would probably be pistellum rather than pistillum. On the other hand, reconstructing a *-s-tl- sequence in the base at the time the diminutive was derived is chronologically problematic since *-tl- was changed to *-kl-* from early on in Italic (as seen in the Latin instrument suffix -culum).