Etymologically
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Cerealis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kɛ.reˈaː.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [t͡ʃe.reˈaː.lis][1]

Forms

Cereālis (neuter Cereāle); third-declension two-termination adjective[2][3] Also spelled Ceriālis and Caereālis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin Cerēs (“Ceres, goddess of corn”) + -ālis.[1][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Plautus, in whose Menaechmi someone gives Ceriālīs cēnās, dinners fit for the festival of Ceres.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “of Ceres, sacred to Ceres”: Virgil calls the poppy Cereāle papāver, and Ovid speaks of a grove and rites of Ceres.[2][3][6] Plautus' dinners were lavish ones, like those of her festival.[3][7][8] By metonymy it came to mean “of corn, of wheat”, and then “of bread”:[2][3] Virgil has a stalk of wheat, the implements for grinding and baking (Cereālia arma) and a layer of bread under food (Cereāle solum).[2][5][3] Pliny the Elder seems to use it of breezes that ripen figs.[2]

Julius Caesar first appointed the aedīlēs Cereālēs to look after the corn supply of Rome.[2][7] Members of colleges devoted to Ceres were called Cereālēs in inscriptions,[2][9] and Jerome uses the word for people who run about here and there, like Ceres looking for her daughter.[7]

Medieval British glossaries render caereālia arma as baking implements.[10] English cereal (1818 as an adjective) comes from it through French.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus speaks of dinners fit for the festival of Ceres.[2][4]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Ceres' poppy, of wheat and of bread.[2][3][4]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a grove and rites of Ceres.[3][6][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of ripening breezes.[2][4]
  • c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses the noun for people who rush about.[7][4]
  • 1818 – English cereal is recorded as an adjective, from French.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of, belonging to or sacred to Ceres.[2][3][6]
  2. Fit for the festival of Ceres; lavish.[2][3][7]
  3. Of wheat or corn; used in growing or preparing wheat.[2][3]
  4. Of bread; of food generally.[2][5]
  5. aedīlis Cereālis, an aedile in charge of the corn supply.[2][7][3]
  6. Ripening (of breezes).[2]

Noun

  1. (masculine plural) Members of a college devoted to Ceres.[2][9]
  2. (Late Latin, masculine plural) People who rush about.[7]

Usage notes

As a cognomen, Cereālis was the name of men in Tacitus and Martial,[6][3] and Wiktionary notes the consul Gaius Anicius Cerialis.[1] The calendar of the Fasti Vaticani marks the lūdī Ceriālēs on 12 April; the festival itself is the Cereālia.[9] Medieval Latin also had an unrelated cēreālis, from cēra “wax”, for a church tributary who paid his dues in wax.[12][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ Simpson, D. P. (1959), Cassell's New Latin Dictionary, London: Cassell
  9. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  10. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill