vitula

• vidula, viella, viēla, viōla, fiōla (Medieval Latin)

Feminine counterpart of vitulus (“a [male] calf”). Whether the word for a string instrument is from this source is quite uncertain, but may be related to strings being made from the intestines of cattle; may also be a borrowing from Frankish *fiþulā (“violin, fiddle”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈu̯i.tu.la/, [ˈu̯ɪt̪ʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.tu.la/, [ˈviːt̪ulä]

vitula f (genitive vitulae); first declension

1. Latin: the Roman goddess of joy and victory. See (Vitulatio)
2. a young cow, a female calf, a heifer
3. (Medieval Latin) a stringed musical instrument, probably the viola

First-declension noun.

• vitella

• “1. vĭtŭla”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• VITULA 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)
• “vitula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• 1 vĭtŭla in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.: “1,687/1”
• “uitula¹” on page 2,081/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)