medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Paul wrote of Fr. Ambrose's suggestion that pilax is a masculine form
of pilatrix:
>Your etymology sounds good
>(>`pillager'?): could it have been used at times as a personal name for
>cats?
In further support of this notion, Latham's _Word-List_ includes
pilax (defined as "cat") s.v. pilagium: pillage, robbery. The first
use cited is from the 7th century (presumably from this _vita_ of
Samson under discussion), then there's a long gap before the word
crops up again in a 15th century glossary and in a document from 1483.
Latham also includes what classically would have been the expected
masculine counterpart, pilator, defined as "pillager, robber," c.
1440 (and to save the curious the trouble of looking, it's not in
Lewis and Short although pilatrix is, in a single use quoted by
Nonius (3c. C.E. grammarian) from Titinnius (2c. B.C.E. comic
writer)).
I'm sorry to say that I wasn't able to find anything on medieval
personal cat names other than the apparent use of Pangur Ban c.
9/10c. at Reichenau, quoted at:
http://www.crazyforkitties.com/fow/fow4.shtml
John
--
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*** John McChesney-Young ** [log in to unmask] ** Berkeley,
California, U.S.A. ***
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