pullus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pullus.

Noun

pullus (plural pulli)

1. (ornithology) A chick; a young bird in the downy stage.

Related terms

• pullet
• pullulate
• repullulate

References

• “pullus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “pullus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin pullus. Doublet of pul.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pullus m (plural pulli, no diminutive)

1. (ornithology) a pullus; the young chick of a bird

   Synonym: kuiken

   Hyponyms: nesteling, takkeling

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpʊl.lʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpul.lus]

Etymology 1

Disputed; two etymologies are plausible:

• From Proto-Italic *polnos, from Proto-Indo-European *polH-on- (“offspring, (animal) young”); compare Ancient Greek πῶλος (pôlos, “foal; young girl”), Proto-Germanic *fulô (“foal”), Albanian pjellë (“child”) and pelë (“mare”), Old Armenian ուլ (ul, “kid, fawn”). The verbal root is likely found in Albanian pjell (“to beget”), which implies a connection to pellō (“to drive, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- with a semantic shift of “to push (out)” > “to beget”, if not a distinct root *pelH- (“to give birth”).
• From Proto-Indo-European *put-, also found in Latin putus (“boy”), Proto-Indo-Iranian *putrás (“boy”) and perhaps Sanskrit पोत (pota, “young animal”) (which would indicate *pewt-, though more likely borrowed from Dravidian) and Lithuanian putýtis (“young bird, young animal”). De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *putslos, which he considers a variant of *putlos (“boy”). The presence of an earlier apical consonant in the stem in Latin is evidenced by the -s- in the diminutive adjective pusillus. Some authors connect these to the root *peh₂w- (“small”) (compare Latin paulus, paullus (“small”) and paucus (“little, few”), Old English fēaw (“little, few”)), but the morphology is unclear and the complete disappearance of the laryngeal is hard to explain.

Alternatively onomatopoeic, like Swedish pulla.

Noun

pullus m (genitive pullī); second declension

2. any young animal, young, especially:

   Synonym: fētus

   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Rerum rusticarum III.XV.1–2:

     Facere iis [gliribus] cavos oportet laxiores, ubi pullos parere possint; aquam esse tenuem, quod ea non utuntur multum et aridum locum quaerunt.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 35 BCE, Horatius, Sermones 2.3.314–317:

     […] absentis ranae pullis vituli pede pressis / unus ubi effugit, matri denarrat, ut ingens / belua cognatos eliserit: illa rogare, / quantane?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   1. a chick, chicken or any young fowl

      Coordinate terms: gallus, gallīna

      • c. 35 BCE, Horatius, Sermones 1.3.90–94:

        Conminxit lectum potus mensave catillum / Evandri manibus tritum deiecit: ob hanc rem, / aut positum ante mea quia pullum in parte catini / sustulit esuriens, minus hoc iucundus amicus / sit mihi?

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • c. 35 BCE, Horatius, Sermones 2.2.120–121:

        bene erat non piscibus urbe petitis, / sed pullo atque haedo

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   2. any young equine: a foal, colt

      Synonyms: equuleus (“horse foal”), asellus (“ass foal”)

      Coordinate terms: equus; asinus

      • Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Zaccharias [Zechariah] 9:9, page 1424, column 1:

        Exsulta satis, filia Sion; iubila, filia Ierusalem: ecce rex tuus veniet tibi, iustus et salvator: ipse pauper, et ascendens super asinam et super pullum filium asinae.

        Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; make jubilation, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

3. (transferred senses):
   1. (horticulture) a shoot, a young plant

      Synonyms: pampinus, germen

      • 234 BCE – 149 BCE, Marcus Porcius Cato, De agri cultura 51:

        Propagatio pomorum, aliarum arborum. Ab arbore abs terra pulli qui nascentur, eos in terram deprimito extollitoque primorem partem, uti radicem capiat; […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   3. (endearing) darling
      • c. 180 BCE, Plautus, Casina I.1.44–1.52:

        Concludere in fenestram firmiter, / Vnde auscultare possis, quom ego illam ausculer. / Quom mihi illa dicet: mi animule, mi Olympio, / Mea vita, mea mellilla, mea festivitas: / Sine tuos ocellos deosculer, voluptas mea, / Sine, amabo, ted amari, meus festus dies, / Meus pullus passer, mea columba, mi lepus: […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 121 CE, Suetonius, De vita Caesarum Vita Gai 13:

        Itaque ut a Miseno movit quamvis lugentis habitu et funus Tiberi prosequens, tamen inter altaria et victimas ardentisque taedas densissimo et laetissimo obviorum agmine incessit, super fausta nomina "sidus" et "pullum" et "pupum" et "alumnum" appellantium; […]

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	pullus	pullī
genitive	pullī	pullōrum
dative	pullō	pullīs
accusative	pullum	pullōs
ablative	pullō	pullīs
vocative	pulle	pullī

Derived terms

• pullārius
• pullastra
• pullicēnus
• pullīnus
• *pulliō (Vulgar Latin)
• pullō
• pullulus

Descendants

Inherited

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: pulj, pulju, puljiu
  • Istro-Romanian: puľ
  • Megleno-Romanian: puľu
  • Romanian: pui
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: pollo
    • → Sicilian: pollu
  • Marchigiano: puju
• Padanian:
  • Lombard: pói
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: pôl
  • Old French: pol, pul, poul
    • → Middle English: pulle
• Southern Gallo-Romance:
  • Aragonese: pollo

    Ribagorçan: poll, pol

  • Catalan: poll
  • Languedocien: pol
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Asturian: pollu, pullu
  • Old Galician-Portuguese:
    • Galician: polo
    • Portuguese: polo
  • Spanish: pollo
    • → Portuguese: polho
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: pudhu, puddu
  • Sicilian: puḍḍu

Derivatives

• ⇒ Late Latin: pullanus
  • Old French:
    • ⇒ Middle French: poulenet
      • →? Scots: powny
        • → English: pony (see there for further descendants)
        • → Scottish Gaelic: pònaidh
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: pulla f
  • Balkan Romance:
    • Aromanian: pulã
    • Romanian: pulă
  • Dalmatian:
    • pula
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Umbro: pulla
  • Padanian:
    • Lombard: pola, póia
    • Romansh: pula
  • Northern Gallo-Romance:
    • Franco-Provençal: pola
    • Old French: poule
      • French: poule
        • → English: poule
      • ⇒ Old French: polaille, poulaille
        • French: poulaille
          • → Middle English: pullayle
      • Norman: poule
      • Walloon: poye
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Catalan: polla
    • Occitan: pola

      Gascon: pora, potha

      Languedocien: polha (meridional)

  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Galician: pola
    • Portuguese: pola (northern)
    • Spanish: polla
  • Insular Romance:
    • Sardinian: pudha, pudda
    • Sicilian: puḍḍa, pulla
  • → Albanian: pulë
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: pullāmen
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: pollame
  • Northern Gallo-Romance:
    • Old French: polain
      • Anglo-Norman: pulein
      • French: poulain
      • Norman: poulain
      • → English: Pulliam
  • Insular Romance:
    • Sicilian: puḍḍami
  • → Middle English: poleyn
    • English: pullen (obsolete)
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: pullaster, pullastrum (cf. pullastra
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Central Italian: pollastro

      Laziale: pellàstre

  • Padanian:
    • Emilian: pulàstar
    • Ligurian: polàstro
    • Lombard: polàster
    • Piedmontese: polastr, polast
    • Venetan: polàstro
  • Insular Romance:
    • Sicilian: puḍḍastru, puḍḍastra
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Aragonese: pollastre, pullastre
    • Catalan: pollastre
      • → Spanish: pollastre
    • Occitan: polastre (“big chicken”)
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pulletrus
  • Padanian:
    • Emilian: pulér, pulédar, puliér
    • Ligurian: polêo, poliêro
    • Lombard: poléder
    • Piedmontese: polé
    • Romagnol: pulédar, puledre
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: puledro
    • Neapolitan: pulletro, pullitro
    • Tuscan: puledro, pullero
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pulleus (attributive)
  • Aromanian: puljiu, pulj
  • Romanian: pui, пуй (pui) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling
    • →? Hungarian: pulya
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pulliana f
  • Italian: poiana
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: pullīnus
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: pollino
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Piedmontese: poin, pojin
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Catalan: pollí
    • Occitan: polin

      Gascon: porin

  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Asturian: pollín
    • Spanish: pollino
• ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pullittus (diminutive)
  • Padanian:
    • Romansh: poulet
  • Northern Gallo-Romance:
    • Franco-Provençal: polèt
    • Old French: poulet (see there for further descendants)
  • Southern Gallo-Romance:
    • Catalan: pollet
    • Occitan: polet

      Gascon: poret

• ⇒? Vulgar Latin: *pūllicella
  • Old French: pulcella, pulcele, pucele
    • Middle French: pucelle
      • French: pucelle
    • → English: pucelle
    • → Italian: pulzella
    • → Yiddish: פּילצל (piltsl)
• ⇒? Vulgar Latin: *pulliter, *pullitrum, *pullitrus
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: poltro
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Spanish: potro
    • Asturian: potru, podru
    • Old Galician-Portuguese:
      • Galician: potro
      • Portuguese: potro
    • Old Galician-Portuguese: *poldro
      • Galician: poldro
      • Portuguese: poldro
  • >? Catalan: poltre
  • Insular Romance:
    • Sicilian: putru, puḍḍitru
  • ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pulitrella f
    • ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *pultrella
      • Old French: *poutrelle
        • ⇒? Old French: poutre (apocope)
          • French: poutre
• ⇒? Vulgar Latin: *pullere
  • Asturian: espolletar

Borrowings

• → Medieval Greek: -ποῦλος (-poûlos)
  • Greek: -πουλος (-poulos), -όπουλος (-ópoulos)
• → Proto-Berber:
  • Atlas:
    • Tashelhit: afullus
    • Central Atlas Tamazight: ⴰⴼⵓⵍⵍⵓⵙ (afullus)
    • Senhaja de Srair: afellus, afullus, afulus
    • Ghomara: afulus
  • Zenati:
    • Tarifit: fiǧus, afiǧus, fuǧus
    • Tachawit: fullis
    • Northern Saharan Berber: fullus
  • → Arabic:
    • Libyan Arabic: فِلُّوس (fillūs)
    • Maltese: fellus
    • Moroccan Arabic: فلوس (fallūs)
    • Tunisian Arabic: فلوس (fellūs)
• →? Ancient Greek: ποῦλλος (poûllos)
  • ⇒ Koine Greek: πουλλίον (poullíon, diminutive)
    • Medieval Greek: πουλλίν (poullín)
      • Greek: πουλί (poulí)
• →? Central Franconian: Pöll
• →? Luxembourgish: Pëll
• →? Dutch: pulle, pul
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: polo

Unsorted

• Friulian: poleç
• Occitan: polhe
• Romansh: pulschain

Etymology 2

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *polHwós (maybe a weak form of *pélHus) or *polHnós, from the root *pelH- (“pale, gray”), thereby related to palleō, though the formal details are debated.

Adjective

pullus (feminine pulla, neuter pullum); first/second-declension adjective

1. dark-colored, dark-gray, dusky
   • 116 BCE – 27 BCE, Marcus Terentius Varro, Rerum rusticarum III.XII.5:

     Quorum [leporum] ergo tria genera fere sunt: unum Italicum hoc nostrum pedibus primis humilibus, posterioribus altis, superiore parte pulla, ventre albo, auribus longis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 37 BCE – 30 BCE, Vergilius, Georgicon III.384–390:

     Si tibi lanitium curae, primum aspera silva / lappaeque tribolique absint; fuge pabula laeta; / continuoque greges villis lege mollibus albos. / Illum autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse, / nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato, / reice, ne maculis infuscet vellera pullis / nascentum, plenoque alium circumspice campo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Metamorphoses 11.610–612:

     […] : at medio torus est ebeno sublimis in antro, / plumeus, atricolor, pullo velamine tectus, / quo cubat ipse deus membris languore solutis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 30 BCE, Horatius, Epodi XVI.41–48:

     Nos manet Oceanus circum vagus: arva beata / petamus, arva divites et insulas, / reddit ubi cererem tellus inarata quotannis / et inputata floret usque vinea, / germinat et numquam fallentis termes olivae / suamque pulla ficus ornat arborem, / mella cava manant ex ilice, montibus altis / levis crepante lympha desilit pede.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (transferred senses):
   1. (of clothing) associated with the common people and by extension, with humbleness (of rank or intent), stinginess or mourning

      toga/vestis/tunica pulla: any rough and cheap dark-gray garb usually worn by the poor, not suited for special or meaningful events

      (Can we add an example for this sense? (mourning))

      • 70 BCE, Cicero, In Verrem II.IV.54:

        Tum illa, ex patellis et turibulis quae evellerat, ita scite in aureis poculis inligabat, ita apte in scaphiis aureis includebat, ut ea ad illam rem nata esse diceres; ipse tamen praetor, qui sua vigilantia pacem in Sicilia dicit fuisse, in hac officina maiorem partem diei cum tunica pulla sedere solebat et pallio.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 56 BCE, Cicero, In Vatinium XII–XIII:

        Atque etiam illud scire ex te cupio, quo consilio aut qua mente feceris ut in epulo Q. Arri, familiaris mei, cum toga pulla accumberes? quem umquam videris, quem audieris? quo exemplo, quo more feceris? […] Sed omitto epulum populi Romani, festum diem argento, veste, omni apparatu ornatuque visendo: quis umquam in luctu domestico, quis in funere familiari cenavit cum toga pulla? cui de balineis exeunti praeter te toga pulla umquam data est? Cum tot hominum milia accumberent, cum ipse epuli dominus, Q. Arrius, albatus esset, tu in templum Castoris te cum C. Fibulo atrato ceterisque tuis furiis funestum intulisti. Quis tum non ingemuit, quis non doluit rei publicae casum?

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 4th century, Hieronymus, Epistolae 3.Ad Nepotianum Phesbyterum.9:

        Vestes pullas aeque devita, ut candidas. Ornatus ut sordes pari modo fugiendae sunt, quia alterum delicias, alterum gloriam redolet.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • c. 416/417 CE, Paulus Orosius, Historiae adversum paganos Caput XVIII. 6.434–435:

        Lepidus tandem intelligens, quo vanitas sua tenderet, deposito paludamento, assumptaque veste pulla, supplex Cæsari factus vitam et bona impetravit, perpetuo quidem emendatus exsilio.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   2. (poetic, of the threads of the Fates) bringing sorrow, sorrowful, mournful
      • 9 CE, Ovidius, Ibis 241–244:

        […] : at Clotho iussit promissa valere, / nevit et infesta stamina pulla manu, / et, ne longa suo praesagia diceret ore, / ‘fata canet vates qui tua,’ dixit, ‘erit.’

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martialis, Epigrammata 6.58.7–11:

        Si mihi lanificae ducunt non pulla sorores
        Stamina nec surdos vox habet ista deos,
        Sospite me sospes Latias reveheris ad urbes
        Et referes pili praemia clarus eques.

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

To be dressed in unelegant, torn or tattered clothings before a public was used by Romans to express humility, inspire pity and earn people's good will (see Suetonius, Vitellius 15; Orosius, Historiae 6.18).

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	pullus	pulla	pullum		pullī	pullae	pulla
genitive	pullī	pullae	pullī		pullōrum	pullārum	pullōrum
dative	pullō	pullae	pullō		pullīs
accusative	pullum	pullam	pullum		pullōs	pullās	pulla
ablative	pullō	pullā	pullō		pullīs
vocative	pulle	pulla	pullum		pullī	pullae	pulla

Derived terms

• pullātus
• pullum (nominalized)

See also

Colors in Classical and Old Latin · colōrēs (layout · text)

albus, candidus, cānus, marmoreus (poetic), eburneus (poetic), niveus (poetic), argenteus (poetic), lacteus (poetic)	pullus, fuscus, aquilus, mūrīnus (of livestock)	āter, niger, furvus, piceus (poetic)
rūfus, russus, ruber, flammeus (poetic), rōbus (of oxen), burrus; pūniceus, spādīx (poetic), sanguineus (poetic)	rutilus, fulvus (poetic), rāvus (of eyes), aureus (poetic), croceus (poetic); rūbidus, niger, badius (of horses)	lūridus, flāvus, lūteus, gilvus (of horses), helvus (of cattle); cēreus (poetic)
viridis, flāvus (poetic)	viridis, herbeus, fulvus (poetic)	viridis, glaucus, caeruleus (poetic, only dark)
	glaucus, caesius (of eyes)	līvidus, caeruleus, ferrūgineus (poetic), glaucus
violāceus	purpureus (underlying shade)	roseus

Further reading

• “pullus 1”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 2”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 3”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pullus 1”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pullus 2”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “pullus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• "pullus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “pullus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers