Festuca, festúcæ, pen. prod f. g. Colum. Plin. The yong tender spring of a tree or hearbe. A mote: the rodde that the pretour vsed among the Romanes to make bondmen free.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
festūca, ae, f., a stalk, stem, straw.I.Lit.A. In gen.: qui homo in pratis per fenisecta festucas corradit, Varr. L. L. 5, 136; Col. 8, 15, 6; Plin. 10, 41, 57, 116; 18, 27, 67, 254.—B.A rod with which slaves were touched in the ceremony of manumission: qui vindicabat festucam tenebat ... et homini imponebat, Gai. Inst. 4, 16; cf.: vindicta, A.: quid? ea ingenuan' an festuca facta e serva libera'st?Plaut. Mil. 4, 1, 15; id. Pers. 5, 175.—II.Transf., a straw-like weed which grows among barley, also called aegilops, Plin. 18, 17, 44, 155.— B.A trifle, particle, mote: in oculo fratris, Vulg. Matt. 7, 3; id. Luc. 6, 41.
