aedicula

Forms

aedicula f (genitive aediculae); first declension^[1] Inscriptions have aid- and the syncopated aedicla.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin aedēs (“room, temple, (plural) house”) + -cula, a diminutive.^[2][1][3] De Vaan explains that aedēs first meant the fireplace, then the room with a fireplace and a small temple of one room, while its plural meant a house; it goes back to Proto-Italic *aiþ- (“fireplace”) and Proto-Indo-European *h2(e)idh- (“burning”), the root of Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”) and Old Irish áed (“fire”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler find it first in Plautus,^[3][4] where in the Epidicus a speaker wants a woman shut away by herself in a little room.^[2][5] It means a small room.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Terence the plural is a small house,^[2][6] and Cicero uses it of a set of rooms in a block of flats.^[7][6] It also named a small shrine or chapel: Cicero has an altar and an aedicula dedicated together, Livy an aedicula of Victory,^[8][7] and Petronius a niche holding silver Lares.^[8][6] On tombstones it is the niche for the urn, and so a tomb.^[8][2] In the Vulgate it is a chapel in a house;^[8] medieval writers in Britain use it of a small house, a tomb, a chapel and a small religious house.^[9] Italian edicola continues it.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a small room.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses the plural of a small house.^[2][6][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a shrine.^[8][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it of a niche for the Lares.^[8][6][4]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of a household chapel.^[8][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small room.^[2][7]
2. (plural) A small house; a set of rooms.^[2][7]
3. A small shrine, chapel; a niche for the image of a god.^[2][8]
4. A tomb; the niche for the urn in a tomb.^[2][8]
5. (Medieval Latin) A small religious house.^[9]

Related words

• aedēs
• aedifex
• aedificātiō
• aedificātiuncula
• aedificātor
• aedificātōrius
• aedificiālis
• aedificium
• aedificō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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