aciarium

Forms

aciārium n (genitive aciāriī or aciārī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin aciēs (“sharp edge, point”) + -ārium.^[2][3][4][1] The TLL lists it under acia (“thread”), and Köbler records from that word a gloss meaning “sewing thread”.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Latin glossaries, which explain it by Ancient Greek στόμωμα (stómōma, “hardened steel”) and by ferrum dūrum, “hard iron”;^[7][5] an Old English gloss gives it as ⟨accearium⟩, “steel”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Conte calls it a word of Late Latin.^[4] Medieval documents spell it in many ways, ⟨acciarium⟩, ⟨acerum⟩, ⟨azarium⟩, ⟨azarum⟩, and an imperial charter of 1194 speaks of ⟨ferrum acerum⟩, steel.^[2][3] A text ascribed to Aristotle mentions filings of steel.^[3]

It is the source of Italian acciaio and French acier;^[4][1][9] Du Cange already compared these with it.^[4][1][9]

Timeline

• 1194 – An imperial charter uses the form ⟨acerum⟩ of steel.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Late Latin, Medieval Latin) Steel.^[2][3][8][1]

Related words

• aciēs

Usage notes

Glossaries and Du Cange also record an aciārium “needle-case”, related to acus “needle”.^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Goetz, Georg (1888–1923), Corpus glossariorum Latinorum, Leipzig: Teubner; vols. VI–VII Thesaurus glossarum emendatarum, digital ed. CGLO, Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre