perula

From Latin pērula, diminutive of pera (“wallet”), from Ancient Greek πήρα (pḗra). Compare French pérule.

perula (plural perulae)

1. (botany) One of the scales of a leaf bud.
2. (botany) A pouchlike portion of the perianth in certain orchids.

• epural, pleura

The diminutive form of pēra (“a bag”, “a wallet”), formed as pēra +‎ -ula (suffix forming feminine diminutives).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpeː.ru.la/, [ˈpeːrʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpe.ru.la/, [ˈpɛːrulä]

pērula f (genitive pērulae); first declension

1. a little wallet, a pocket
   1. in literal use
   2. (transferred sense, comical) a tumescent womb or paunch

First-declension noun.

• “pērŭla”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

From pirum (“a pear”).

• perla, perna, pella

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpe.ru.la/, [ˈpɛrʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpe.ru.la/, [ˈpɛːrulä]

perula f (genitive perulae); first declension

1. (Medieval Latin) pearl (shelly concretion, usually found in oysters, and often valued in a manner akin to semi-precious gems)
   • 1272, an unknown source in The Natural History of Precious Stones and of the Precious Metals (1867), viii, page 269:

     Una Perla ad modum camahuti.

     A pearl in the manner of a cameo.

First-declension noun.

• (pearl): margarīta (Classical)

English pearl and its cognates are of uncertain etymology and may alternatively derive from Medieval Latin *pernula, a diminutive of perna (“haunch; a marine bivalve shaped like a leg of lamb”).

• Gallo-Italic
  • Lombard: pèrla
  • Piedmontese: perla
• Italo-Dalmatian
  • Corsican: perla
  • Italian: perla
• Old French: perle
  • Walloon: pièle
  • French: perle (see there for further descendants)
  • → Middle English: perle, peerl, peerle, perel, perill, perl, peryll
    • English: pearl
    • Scots: pairl, purl
  • → Middle Dutch: perle, peerle, paerle, parle
    • Dutch: parel, (archaic) paarl, (obsolete) paerl, (obsolete) paarle, (obsolete) paerle
      • Afrikaans: pêrel
      • Negerhollands: perl, peerl
    • Limburgish: paerel
• Occitano-Romance
  • Catalan: perla
  • Occitan: pèrla, perlo
• Rhaeto-Romance
  • Friulian: perle
  • Romansch: perla
• Sardinian: perèla, perèlla
• West Iberian
  • Aragonese: perla
  • Old Leonese:
    • Asturian: perlla
    • Mirandese: perla
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: perla
    • Portuguese: pérola
    • Galician: perla
  • Spanish: perla
    • Chavacano: perla, perlas
    • → Basque: perla
    • → Ilocano: perlas

Borrowings

• Old Saxon: perula
  • Middle Low German: perle
    • Plautdietsch: Parl
    • → Old Norse: perla
      • Danish: perle
      • Faroese: perla
      • Icelandic: perla
      • Norwegian Bokmål: perle
      • Norwegian Nynorsk: perle
      • Swedish: pärla
• Old High German: perla, perala
  • Middle High German: berle, perle
    • Alemannic German: Pärla
    • German: Perle (see there for further descendants)
    • Luxembourgish: Pärel
    • Hunsrik: Perl
    • Vilamovian: pela
    • Yiddish: פּערל (perl)

Ultimately from perula (or *pernula) but of uncertain intermediate borrowings:

• Bulgarian: перла (perla)
• Cornish: perl
• Irish: péarla
• Latvian: pērle
• Lithuanian: perlas
• Livonian: pǟrlõz
• Lower Sorbian: parla
• Samoan: penina
• Sicilian: perla
• Slovak: perla
• Sotho: pêrêla
• Ukrainian: перла (perla)
• Upper Sorbian: parla
• Võro: pärli
• West Frisian: pearel

• “perula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• perula 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)
• perula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Jan Frederik Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus : Lexique Latin Médiéval–Français/Anglais : A Medieval Latin–French/English Dictionary, fascicle I (1976), page 794/2, “perula”