28.12.25: Comenius (1658) LV: cookery (4) Part 4: [9] text, notes and vocabulary

The aim of this topic was not to read Cicero, but to build up some vocabulary that can be used to describe cooking, specifically to personalise the vocabulary and adapt it to spoken language e.g. identifying objects in your own kitchen. This last little section gives a list of utensils; not all of them will be relevant, but, as mentioned in the first post, you can be selective.

Kitchen utensils besides are, │ Vāsa Coquīnāria prætereā sunt,

a Coal-rake, │ Rutābulum,.

a Chafing-dish, │ Foculus (ignītābulum),

a pair of Tongs, │ Forceps,

a Shredding-knife, │ Culter incīsōrius,

a Colander, │ Quālus,

a Basket, │ Corbis,

and a Besom, │ & Scōpa

[1] vāsum, -ī [2/m]: has a very general meaning of ‘dish’ or ‘vessel’, but also ‘utensil’ or ‘tool’

[2] Neo-Latin at work!

culter incīsōrius: carving knife; cleaver

The noun incīsor, incisōris [3/m] is Neo-Latin and refers specifically to incisors, the narrow teeth at the front of the mouth designed to bite or cut into food < CL: incīdō, -ere [3]: cut into / through

The adjective incīsōrius, -a, -um is similarly unattested in CL, but refers to ‘cutting into’ something, and does appear in a Late Latin text: magister incīsōrius, a master tailor i.e. he’s a specialist in cutting into cloth

The specific term used by Comenius also occurs in a Latin-Russian phrasebook from 1831: culter incīsōrius │ сечка [sechka], a carving knife; cleaver

https://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Pagina:Ivashkovskiy_Rossiysko-Latinskie_Razgovory_1831.pdf/61

[3] rutābulum, -ī [2/n]: [i] (fire) a fire-shovel: “employed by bakers and smiths for throwing up the embers and ignitable matter in their ovens and forges…it is commonly mentioned in conjunction with the tongs (forceps)”

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=rutabulum-harpers

This is similar to what Comenius is referring to in the text, and it can also translate as a ‘poker’ for coals in a fire. However, the word does have a second meaning in CL: [ii] (cookery) a wooden shovel or spatula for stirring and mixing liquids.

[4] quālus, -ī [2/m]; quālum, -ī [2/n]: in CL, it refers to  a wicker basket or a wine strainer

[5] corbis, -is [3 m/f]: basket; also: corbula, -ae [1/f]: little basket

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=corbis-cn

Image: discovery and restoration of a Roman basket

https://lifelong-learning.ox.ac.uk/news/rare-roman-basket-shoe-in-waterlogged-pit-at-marcham

Image Set (i) – (v)

(i) batillum, -ī [2/n]: small shovel;  fire / coal shovel; a chafing-dish; fire-pan used for burning incense or sweet-smelling herbs

(ii) cōlum, -ī [2/n]: colander; strainer

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=colum-cn

[img] Bronze wine strainer found near Nijmegen; Roman; 1st century AD

(iii) foculus, -ī [2/m]: “The word foculus is a diminutive form of focus, which itself means "a hearth," "a fireplace," or a "coal pan." Foculus, a bronze or iron container, round or rectangular in shape, large or small in size, can be used for a brazier or a fire-pan. Filled with hot coals, it served as a portable chafing dish for food … or as a room heater in one of the hot rooms of the baths or in the home to ward off the cold in winter or, as here in this passage, to provide for a pre-dinner bath.”

https://www.vroma.org/vromans/araia/foculus.html

The 21^st century equivalent of ‘chafing dishes’ are the food trays covered by lids with a small heater below them to keep, for example, breakfast food warm in a hotel. Comenius refers to this idea by the use of:

ignītābulum, -ī [2/n]: (CL) a ‘tinderbox’ or any implement used for producing fire; Neo-Latin: (cigarette) lighter

[img] 18^th century copy of brazier; Pompeii

(iv) forceps, forcipis [3/m]: tongs

[img] iron fire-tongs, Etruscan; late 4th or early 3rd century BCE (Metropolitan Museum)

(v) scōpa, -ae [1/f]: a broom, or besom, one which is made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft; note: avoid the use of the word ‘besom’ in Scotland since it is an insulting reference to a troublesome woman, the term presumably referring to the broomstick of a witch!