# perula
## English
### Etymology

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

### Noun

perula (plural perulae)
* (botany) One of the scales of a leaf bud.
* (botany) A pouchlike portion of the perianth in certain orchids.
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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “perula”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

### Anagrams

* epural, pleura

## Latin
### Etymology 1

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

#### Pronunciation

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

#### Noun

pērula f (genitive pērulae); first declension
* a little wallet, a pocket
** in literal use
** (transferred sense, comical) a tumescent womb or paunch

##### Declension

First-declension noun.

#### References

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

### Etymology 2

From pirum (“a pear”).

#### Alternative forms

* perla, perna, pella

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈper.u.la/, [ˈpɛrʊɫ̪ä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈper.u.la/, [ˈpɛrulä]

#### Noun

perula f (genitive perulae); first declension
* (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.

##### Declension

First-declension noun.

##### Synonyms

* (pearl): margarīta (Classical)

##### Descendants

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”).
* Insular Romance:
** Sardinian: perèla, perèlla
* Italo-Dalmatian:
** Corsican: perla
** Italian: perla
** Sicilian: perla
* Rhaeto-Romance:
** Friulian: perle
** Romansch: perla
* Gallo-Italic:
** Lombard: pèrla
** Piedmontese: perla
* Gallo-Romance:
** Old French: perle
*** French: perle (see there for further descendants)
*** Walloon: pièle
*** → Middle Dutch: perle, peerle, paerle, parle
**** Dutch: parel, (archaic) paarl, (obsolete) paerl, (obsolete) paarle, (obsolete) paerle
***** Afrikaans: pêrel
***** Negerhollands: perl, peerl
**** Limburgish: paerel
*** → Middle English: perle, peerl, peerle, perel, perill, perl, peryll
**** English: pearl
**** Scots: pairl, purl
* Occitano-Romance:
** Catalan: perla
** Occitan: pèrla, perlo
* Ibero-Romance:
** Aragonese: perla
** Old Galician-Portuguese: perla
*** Portuguese: pérola
*** Galician: perla
** Old Leonese:
*** Asturian: perlla
*** Mirandese: 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
* → Slovak: perla
* → Sotho: pêrêla
* → Ukrainian: перла (perla)
* → Upper Sorbian: parla
* → Võro: pärli
* → West Frisian: pearel

#### References

* “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”