adytum

Forms

adytum n (genitive adytī); second declension^[1] Accius has a fourth-declension masculine adytus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἄδυτον (áduton, “innermost sanctuary”),^[2][3][1] the neuter used as a noun of ἄδυτος (ádutos, “not to be entered”).^[1][3] Köbler analyses the Greek word as ἀ- (a-, “not”) and δύω (dúō, “to enter”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first citation is Accius, who has a masculine accusative plural adytūs.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is the innermost part of a temple, the sanctuary, which only priests could enter and where oracles were given.^[2][3] Caesar mentions the hidden and secluded parts of a temple that the Greeks call adyta.^[3] Virgil has the eternal fire brought out of the inner shrine and sad words brought back from it, and Horace uses it too.^[3] In general it is a secret place or chamber: Virgil and Juvenal use it of a tomb, and the Vulgate of inner rooms.^[3] Lucretius speaks figuratively of answers given as if from the shrine of the heart.^[3] Wiktionary gives sānctum sānctōrum as a synonym, and Stelten "sanctuary, holy of holies, inmost part".^[1][5]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius, in a masculine form.^[2][3]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the shrine of the heart.^[3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of the secluded parts of a temple.^[3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the inner shrine and of a tomb.^[3]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate of inner rooms.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The innermost part of a temple, the sanctuary, shrine, from which oracles were given.^[2][3][1][5]
2. A secret place or chamber; a tomb.^[3][1]
3. (figurative) The inmost recesses.^[3][1]

Related words

• penetrale
• sānctum sānctōrum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 o p q Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson