Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Culter

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CUL'TER (μάχαιρα). The name given by the ancients to several different implements employed in cutting, which were made with a single edge, broadish back, and a sharp point; all of which were used for domestic or agricultural, and not military, purposes, excepting when descriptive of the barbarous ages, or to characterize the assassin rather than the soldier. Our knife is, perhaps, the nearest translation, but the ancient culter is mostly applied to the largest class of instruments, which pass by the name of knives amongst us. The several kinds, with the epithets which distinguished them, are enumerated below.

2. Culter coquinaris. A cook's knife or kitchen-knife (Varro, ap. Non. s. v. p. 195.), for cutting up meat. The illustration (Culter/1.1) is from an original discovered in a kitchen at Pompeii. Butchers also made use of a similar implement for the same purpose. Liv. iii. 48. Herod. ii. 61.

2. The knife employed by the cultrarius at a sacrifice for cutting the victim's throat (Plaut. Rud. i. 2. 45.); and by the butchers in the slaughter-house (Varro, R. R. ii. 5.11.); frequently represented on sepulchral bas-reliefs, from one of which the annexed specimen (Culter/2.1) is taken, where the inscription CULTRARI OSSA identifies the instrument. Compare the engraving s. CULTRARIUS, in which it is seen in use.

3. Culter venatorius. A huntsman's knife, carried from a belt round the waist, with which he despatched his prey at close quarters (Pet. Sat. 40. 5. Suet. Aug. 19.); similar to that used by the men who fought with wild beasts in the amphitheatre; see the first illustration to BESTIARIUS. The example (Culter/3.1) is copied from an engraved gem.

4. The sharp edge, or flat part of the blade in a vine-dresser's pruning-hook (falx vinitoria), which, in the annexed engraving (Culter/4.1), from an old MS. of Columella, lies between the handle and the hook at the top (Columell. iv. 25. 3.), and which was particularly brought into use for lopping and cutting off.

5. Culter tonsorius. A sort of knife or razor which barbers used for shaving. (Cic. Off. ii. 7. Pet. Sat. 108. 11. Plin. H. N. vii. 59.) Also designated by the diminutive cultellus, and probably having a blade with a point shaped like the huntsman's knife (No. 3.), for it was used for keeping the nails clean. Hor. Ep. i. 7. 51. compared with Val. Max. iii. 2. 15.

6. A knife made of bone or ivory, for eating fruit with (Columell. xii. 45. 4.); also termed cultellus. Plin. H. N. xii. 54.

7. The coulter of a plough; formed like the blade of a large knife, and inserted vertically in front of the share (vomer. Plin. H. N. xviii. 48.), as is clearly shown by the annexed illustration (Culter/7.1), from an engraved gem.

8. In cultrum collocatus. A technical expression in use amongst Roman architects and mechanics, when speaking of objects placed upon their smallest sides or narrowest edges; as of bricks or stones in a building set upon their sides, instead of laid in the usual manner, with their broadest surfaces upwards. (Vitruv. x. 5.) The modern Italians make use of a similar metaphor, "per coltello," when they wish to express the same kind of arrangement.

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  Culter/1.1
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  Culter/2.1
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  Culter/3.1
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  Culter/4.1
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  Culter/7.1