aenum

Forms

aēnum n (genitive aēnī); second declension^[1] It is also spelled ahēnum, and the OLD files it with the form aēneum.^[2]

Etymology

It is the neuter, used as a noun, of aēnus (“of bronze”), beside aēneus.^[2][3] De Vaan derives these adjectives from aes “bronze”, through Proto-Italic *ajes-no- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eies-no- (“of metal”), comparing Umbrian ahesnes (“made of bronze”); the spelling with ⟨h⟩ may come from Umbrian, and the word itself may have been borrowed from Umbrian.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first quotations are in Plautus, who lists one bronze pot and eight jars and wants the cook's cauldron full.^[2] Köbler dates it from Cato, who mentions the lid of a bronze vessel.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

It is a vessel of bronze or copper, above all a cooking pot or cauldron: Cato has must poured into a cauldron, and Virgil men setting up cauldrons on the shore.^[2] Seneca recalls old Pelias boiled in a cauldron, and Propertius says he was scorched in Venus' cruel cauldron.^[2] In industry it is a vat, especially for dyes: Ovid has purple that has felt the Tyrian cauldron.^[2] Valerius Maximus uses it of the bronze vessel of the oracle at Dodona.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a bronze pot and a cook's cauldron.^[2][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of a vessel's lid and of boiling must.^[2][3]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of cauldrons on the shore.^[2][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of the dyer's vat.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bronze or copper vessel; a cauldron, cooking pot.^[2][1]
2. A dyer's vat.^[2]

Word family

• aenulum

Related words

• aēneus
• aes

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill