acroama

Forms

acroāma n (genitive acroāmatis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκρόαμα (akróama, “something heard”),^[2][3][1] from ἀκροᾶσθαι (akroâsthai, “to listen”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Cicero,^[2][5][4] both for a performance heard with pleasure, as when Themistocles was asked which acroama or whose voice he most liked to hear, and for the performer himself.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Georges notes that while the Greeks used it of what was heard, the Romans used it almost only of the person: a musician, reader, storyteller or jester who entertained guests at table.^[6][5] Cicero says of a man who had the inlaid ornaments torn off at a dinner that, like an entertaining performer, he would not leave without his tip, and says someone was not only a spectator but an actor and an acroama.^[5] Nepos writes that at Atticus' dinners the only entertainer heard was a reader.^[5][7] Suetonius, Pliny the Younger and Macrobius use the plural for performers at meals, and Petronius uses it of a performance.^[6][7][5]

Later scribes also wrote acroma.^[6][8] Glossaries explain it as the sound of lyres or pipes and as songs of the stage.^[8] William of Malmesbury uses it of a tune sung to please a king and his guests.^[9] In contemporary Latin it is used for a podcast.^[1]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a performance and of a performer.^[5][4]
• c. 100–24 BC – Nepos writes of the reader at Atticus' dinners.^[5][7][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses the plural for entertainers at meals.^[6][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An item in an entertainment, a performance heard with pleasure, especially at a meal.^[2][5][7]
2. A performer who entertains guests, a musician, reader, storyteller or jester.^[5][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A tune.^[9]
4. (Contemporary Latin) A podcast.^[1]

Related words

• corōllārium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ 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