auricula

Unadapted borrowing from Latin auricula (“external ear; ear”). Doublet of auricle.

• Rhymes: -ɪkjʊlə

auricula (plural auriculae or auriculas)

1. (anatomy) The external part of the ear.

   Synonyms: pinna, auricle

2. (anatomy) A small conical pouch projecting from either atrium of the heart.

   Synonyms: atrial appendage, auricular appendix, auricle

3. (palynology) A pronounced thickening at the corner of a trilete spore, beyond the end of the laesura.

   Synonym: valva

4. (horticulture, plural: auriculas) An ornamental primrose (Primula auricula)

   Synonym: bear's ear

   • 1919, Michael Wood, The White Island‎^[1], page 122:

     Réné came on quietly, his trowel in one hand, some auricula roots in the other.

• “auricula”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “auricula”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• ōricula
• ōricla (late, proscribed)

From auris (“ear”) +‎ -cula (diminutive suffix).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /au̯ˈri.ku.la/, [äu̯ˈrɪkʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /au̯ˈri.ku.la/, [äu̯ˈriːkulä]

auricula f (genitive auriculae); first declension

1. diminutive of auris:
   1. (anatomy) external ear, earlap
      • 54 B.C.E., Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum Fratrem‎^[2]:

        Tu, quemadmodum me censes oportere esse et in re publica et in nostris inimicitiis, ita et esse et fore auricula infima scito molliorem.

        Whatever line you think I ought to take in politics and in treating my opponents, be sure I shall take, and shall be "gentler than any ear-lap.

   2. (in general) ear

      Synonym: auris

First-declension noun.

• auriculāris (adjective)
• auriculārius

• Italo-Romance:
  • Neapolitan: aurecchia
  • Old Italian: urecchio^[1] (possibly)
  • Sicilian: auricchia, aricchia, aricchiu
• North Italian:
  • Lombard: auregia
  • Piedmontese: aurija, auria
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Franco-Provençal: orelye
  • Gascon: aulhera, alhera
  • Occitan: aurelha (all dialects)

    Vivaro-Alpine: aurilha

• Ibero-Romance:
  • Galician: ourella
  • Leonese: oureya
  • Mirandese: oureilha
  • Portuguese: ourelha (regional)
• Borrowings:
  • → Catalan: aurícula
  • → English: auricle, auricula
  • → French: auricule
  • → Galician: aurícula
  • → Italian: auricola
  • → Portuguese: aurícula
  • → Romanian: auriculă
  • → Spanish: aurícula

Reflexes of the early monophthongized variant ōricula:

• Balkan Romance:
  • Aromanian: ureaclji
  • Megleno-Romanian: ureacľă
  • Istro-Romanian: urecľe, uręklja
  • Romanian: ureche
• Dalmatian:
  • oracla
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: orecchia
  • Judeo-Italian: רֵיקֵילַה (rechela)
  • Neapolitan: recchia
  • Sicilian: ricchi, oricchia, ricchia, gricchia
• Insular Romance:
  • Sardinian: olicra, oricia, oricla, oricra, ulicra
• North Italian:
  • Gallo-Italic:
    • Emilian: uraccia
    • Ligurian: oêgia
    • Lombard: uregia, oreggia
    • Piedmontese: orija, oria
  • Friulian: orele, vorele
  • Ladin: orëdla
  • Romansch: ureglia, uraglia (Puter, Vallader)
  • Venetan: récia, orécia
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: orella
  • Franco-Provençal: orelye
  • Old French: oreille (see there for further descendants)
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: orella
    • →? Gascon: orelha
  • Asturian: oreya
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: orelha, orella
    • Galician: orella
    • Portuguese: orelha (see there for further descendants)
  • Old Spanish: [Term?]
    • Ladino: oreja
    • Spanish: oreja

• D'Ambra, Raffaele. 1873. Vocabolario napolitano-toscano domestico di arti e mestieri. Naples: publ. by author. Page 75.
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “auricula”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 52

• “auricula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “auricula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• auricula 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)
• auricula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.