sportula

English

Etymology

Latin sportula (“small basket, by extension a prize”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspɔː(ɹ)tjʊlə/, /ˈspɔː(ɹ)t͡ʃələ/

Noun

sportula (plural sportulae)

1. (archaic) A gift or present; a prize.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     To feed luxuriously, to frequent sports and theatres, to run for the sportula.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sportula”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• postural, pulsator

Latin

Etymology

Diminutive of sporta (“basket”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈspor.tu.la/, [ˈs̠pɔrt̪ʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈspor.tu.la/, [ˈspɔrt̪ulä]

Noun

sportula f (genitive sportulae); first declension

1. small basket, especially one used to distribute gifts to clients
2. gift

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sportula	sportulae
Genitive	sportulae	sportulārum
Dative	sportulae	sportulīs
Accusative	sportulam	sportulās
Ablative	sportulā	sportulīs
Vocative	sportula	sportulae

Descendants

• → Finnish: sportteli
• → German: Sportel
• → Swedish: sportel

References

• “sportula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sportula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sportula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sportula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “sportula”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “sportula”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin